


Colour me surprised

by Mitsuky



Series: Bunnies-box [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Master of Death Harry Potter, Molly Weasley Bashing, Multi, Pet lethifold, Ron Weasley Bashing, Time Travel, Young Gellert Grindelwald
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:54:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25692382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mitsuky/pseuds/Mitsuky
Summary: Harry wins the war and his freedom, goes on a long-overdue holiday, becomes an Auror... and then, old and retired, he hasa little accident.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, past Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley - Relationship
Series: Bunnies-box [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863139
Comments: 14
Kudos: 70





	1. You thought wrong...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The war ends, but the punches keep landing for a long while after.

###### 1997 – Hogwarts – End of the war

Voldemort fell on his knees, a soundless scream contorting his face while the wand came rushing through the air to fall in Harry’s outstretched hand. The ashes were taken away by a soft breeze of air while the multitude looked enraptured at the end of their nightmares.

The Dark Lord was no more...

And the screams that follow this historical event were those of joy and happiness.

Finally, the nightmare was over.

...Right?

All the happy faces were like a balm to Harry’s soul, washing away the constant stress he had felt for so many months now, while running away from snatchers with his friends, finally the war ended; but his peace wasn’t lasting, many died in the fight, and it was time to honour their sacrifice.

The peace achieved wasn’t the last problem to nail down though… not for Harry anyway, because if you thought the lies ended when he went to the headmaster's office to learn that his death was expected of him, then you thought wrong…

* * *

Hogwarts was the silent witness to many atrocities, deaths, funerals and Harry's best slash worst memories.

Fred's funeral especially felt like a punch to the gut, one that left Harry on the floor, with no energy or force enough to help him stand again. The Weasley's cried their sorrow away, tearing the silence apart, all but one did. George looked so void of emotions and so awfully out of place without Fred by his side that it was heart-breaking.

And then came Snape's funeral. It was without a doubt the most awkward thing Harry ever did. Yes, the man swore a bow to protect him while alive, but he's also the reason for many of Harry's worst experiences. Severus Snape gifted the Dark Lord with information that put a target on the three Potters, resulting in his parents’ deaths; he insulted Harry without knowing him from day one; he insulted a dead man time and again; he took his hate for James Potter and made it into a personal hell for Harry for the entire six years he got to spend at Hogwarts; he went from bullied to bully. Yes, he may have given his life for Harry, but in Harry's eyes, that was the least he could do after all the mistakes the man committed against him and his family.

After all, Harry is as much a son of James, as he's Lilly's. And if Lilly knew something, it was how to keep a grudge, which Harry inherited. A grudge that will make Snape’s afterlife miserable if he encounters Lily over there, or at least, Harry likes to think so.

Walking the halls of Hogwarts one last time reignites many memories of his stay at the magical place. He wants to stay, finish his schooling, enjoy one last year on these halls that filled his mockery of a childhood with a few good memories. But he can't... He has to lo leave. He MUST leave before he decides that it's a good idea to go to the headmaster's office, to scream at Dumbledore's portrait, and burn down the entire damned room.

* * *

Molly and Arthur graciously invited Harry to stay with the family at the Burrow, but after a year of running and hiding, he feels way to snappish and needs the solitude and peace that only the dark old Grimmauld can offer.

Ron and Hermione, in contrast, enjoyed each moment walking around, holding hands, snogging under a tree, visiting friends or just shopping at Diagon. They loved not having to run and hide, they couldn't understand him.

For Harry, it felt like the war took all of his energy away. He tried to relax, tried to laugh with them and go for walks and talk with people, but he felt exhausted. His limbs felt numb and he just wanted to crawl on a couch and lie down enjoying the silence and peace most days. His mind feels heavy and he wants to just lie down to see the birds flying away, even chatting with people feels much more than he can handle at the time.

The Prophet came and the reports told the story of the tragic death of Severus Snape along a long list of names of many others who died in the war. He was mentioned as a beloved headmaster who dedicated his life to the light and the fight against Voldemort, a man who gave his life for the Boy-who-lived.

The story of how Harry defeated the Dark Lord was repeated over and over with each news related in the slightless to the war. The people became even more insufferable and mobs would form every time he went out, making him hole down in his godfather's house more often than not.

The trials for the captured Dead Eaters were big events, the paper followed all of them with detailed translations of each hearing, surprisingly accurate details to Harry's surprise. He couldn't help the glee he felt at the thought of Pettigrew rotting in Azkaban along with many other Dead Eaters.

* * *

A week after the last battle, a letter summoning Harry to Gringotts arrived. As he entered the building, the bank looked as pristine as usual with the marvel pillars and the floor looked immaculate, while the goblins busily counted galleons at their stations.

As any other goblin Harry's met, the High King Gulruk scowled at him when he entered the office. Harry was surprised when instead of being asked to take his money and person somewhere else, the goblin instead asked for every little detail on his venture while robbing the bank.

It seems that the threat at the entrance is directed more like a dare than a real warning. But, of course, he was also asked not to breach their security again. The King's amused grin told another story though.

After the chat with the King, he was left at his account manager’s office. The new information he gained from this encounter left him angry and drained at the same time if it’s possible.

The first thing that his accountant did was to read Remus’ and Tonks' wills. He was overjoyed to learn that they named him godfather of little Teddy! But that's where the good news ended.

An entirely new set of responsibilities were given to him in the form of the Potter Lordship, which was more complicated than he expected. And also the Black — because “You were blood adopted by Sirius Black with the complete acceptance of the late Lord Potter and as stated on his will you're to be named Lord Black, Mr Potter,” said the goblin, amused at his distress — and the Peverell — because yes, the Potters are related to them even though they never told a soul about it. Lordships were trusted into his hands like hot potatoes after the goblin grinned and congratulated him on being the proud owner of the largest wealth in all of magical Britain.

Stupid greedy thing.

Reviewing the status of his states for the last decades, that night, brought to Harry the first big bad news. The Dursley's were paid since the beginning until he reached seventeen, a sum of five thousand pounds per year, the bastards! And that wasn't the worst. Albus bloody Dumbledore took not only one thousand galleons per month, but many family heirlooms too! He didn't even know the Potters had many journals and their own Grimoire with ‘family only’ knowledge of spells and such!!!

Not losing any time, the first thing he did the next morning was visiting Gringotts again.

But when Harry tried to complain, the goblin showed him a paper with his own signature on it giving Dumbledore permission to take all of the money and the books.

He raged, screamed it wasn't true, cursed Albus’ name and the Dursleys, punched the wall until his hands were bloody and only paid attention to the goblin when it was mentioned that Albus used _obliviate_ to make him forget, signalling a parchment on the desk with the results of the scan the goblin just cast at the new Lord.

Weary, Harry took a test again, once he calmed down, and found many obliviations affecting him. The goblin, looking grim, ushered Harry into a circular chamber and told him to lay only on his briefs on the middle of the room to be cleansed of the intrusive magic.

Six hours later found Harry with a long sheet detailing the _many_ times that he was put under the effect of Dumbledore's magic. From an obliviate at age eleven to a loyalty potion at age sixteen, right before the man died.

Now, with the loyalty potion erased from his system, Harry Potter was sure, he’s never hated someone this much in his entire life.

* * *

The weeks passed by and the time for the trials of the last Dead Eaters came, with them a letter from Narcissa Malfoy arrived, just on one of the few days Harry decided to spend at the Burrow. Mrs Malfoy asked for his help, Draco's trial would be taking place soon and the woman hoped he could testify to help her son.

Lucius, on the other hand, wasn’t as much as mentioned.

Reading the letter out loud gained him different reactions from the Weasley household. From Molly's frown, to Arthur's incredulity that a Malfoy would ever ask for help with anything, and Ron's outrage, shouting his discontent, insulting Draco, Lucius and Narcissa, the Dead Eaters, the late Dark Lord and everyone he dislikes.

“RON!” Hermione didn't look pleased but when she and Harry locked eyes he knew that she understood, she knew him, she knew he needed to help. Harry's saving people thing she called it many times before, with a fond but also resigned sigh. “Have you forgotten already? She saved Harry's life in the forest!”

“WHAT!? She did that because it was convenient, not because she wanted to help out of the goodness of her rotten heart! She did it because Harry — and I'll never understand why he did it — but he saved the ferret from burning in the RoR when he very well deserved it after all he did!”

Ron's screams were loud enough as to reach Harry on the top floor where he sat writing a response to Mrs Malfoy.

“Enough Ron, don't say things like that!”

“But Hermione...”

Leaving the shouting match fall to the back of his awareness, Harry focussed on the silhouette of George at the threshold of the room.

The gaunt look of his friend worried him, but Harry can't begin to understand the pain George is going through right now, even a month after Fred's death.

George passed him on the desk and sat on the windowsill, looking outside.

“You'll help him, right?”

The question was uttered barely above a whisper but lacking any anger, still, Harry felt dread at the thought of losing his friend with the answer. Mustering his courage, he took a deep breath and released a strong, “Yes, I will,” watching and waiting with dread for George’s reaction.

Shockingly, George only gave him a sad smile and a softly uttered “Good,” patting Harry's shoulder softly and leaving him alone once more.

* * *

The following days Ron was unbearable because of Harry's choice to help Draco, but Hermione and George supported him on his decision and every time Ron decided to make a nuisance of himself, they hexed him.

When finally the day arrived, Harry dressed smartly for the session and waited patiently for his name to be called. When it happened and he entered, every witch and wizard witnessed in shock how he presented his testimony supporting Draco Malfoy.

His declaration was met with complete silence, he told the truth at every moment, and he couldn't help the satisfaction that brought him the look of pain Draco sported when he told the court how Draco couldn't kill Dumbledore on the astronomy tower and the people on the stand started pitying him. Worst so when he related how Draco purposefully protected him and his friends from Bellatrix Lestrange, when he didn’t reveal who he was when the snatchers captured them.

Speech finished, he left the room and waited outside for the dictamen. The final decision was that the young Malfoy was coerced on his actions by the danger his family was put under and was declared innocent, but just to be sure, he would be under watch for the following six months and any bad behaviour would see him straight into Azkaban.

Once outside, Narcissa thanked him and Draco _bowed_ before they left.

His self-satisfied smirk was erased quickly once he tried to leave, the flash of the cameras almost blinded him on his way to the floo, he should have brought the cloak, he thought with regret.

* * *

Being back at Grimmauld place was strange. After standing Ron’s anger and betrayed looks thrown his way by Molly, he had to leave, cutting short his stay at the Burrow.

Two weeks after the trials, Harry was back at the house his godfather left him to stay permanently and he was becoming mad looking at the dark halls and falling painting from the walls. He thought then that it was time for a change, after all, this was to become his permanent residence.

With the help of Kreacher, the remodelling of N°12 started.

The old elf gave Harry a big surprise as he was acting very accepting of his presence and orders. A completely different behaviour in comparison of how he insulted and made everyone's life difficult before, the little menace.

One day, Harry couldn’t hold it anymore and asked him why. The answer was simple though, Kreacher felt grateful. Harry hit his head with his hand at his own lack of attention. He helped the elf carry his beloved master’s last request, destroying the dark locket with Voldemort’s soul in it, of course the elf would change his attitude then.

Kreacher's change of heart was welcome and Harry was more relaxed as he now understood the elf’s helpful attitude and lack of insults. Not that the house lacked them tough, what with Walburga’s howls of outrage every time she got a glimpse of him. No wonder any other portraits where vacated all the time.

The second day into Grimmauld’s exhaustive cleaning, Hermione surprised him with a visit, flooing into the house.

Harry was at the kitchen with Kreacher, cleaning the shelves. When Hermione entered, the elf threw a nasty glare at her and popped away.

“Hum... hi Harry,” she said with confusion, still blinking in surprise a few seconds later when Kreacher left without insulting her.

Harry smiled at her, getting down the chair he was using to reach the top shelves. “Hi, Mione!” He cleaned his hands on his old baggy jeans and gave her a hug. “Sorry for the mess, we were cleaning.”

The table in the middle of the room was full of dishes and silverware, with many broken and unrecognisable pottery mixed with it.

“How did you get him to help?” Hermione asked, surprised, once they were seated in front of the fire.

“Remember the locket?” Hermione nods. “He is grateful,” Harry says with a shrug and puts a cup of tea in front of her. Hermione though, gives him a pointed look that he recognises immediately, “Easy there, I’m not overworking him.”

“You better not,” Hermione said sternly and then looked at her hands, gaining the same air of awkwardness that she had when she arrived. When she looked at him in the eyes again, she looked almost sad, but determined.

“What is it, Mione?”

“We are leaving Harry…”

* * *

The days started to pass by without notice afterwards. Ron didn’t even say goodbye or glance his way when Harry visited last. Hermione gave him a tight hug and grabbed Ron’s arm in one hand and the international portkey in the other. That was the last time he saw them for a long time.

After they left, he felt lonelier than ever. It wasn’t like they weren’t coming back, it just felt strange not to go along.

He finished cleaning the house to his liking after roughly two months. Kreacher looked pleased that her mistress’ home looked tidy and well-kept once more.

Walburga suddenly stopped screaming one afternoon, without him really trying too hard to shut her up, for once. He arrived back exhausted after a difficult day at Gringotts, fixing the mess Dumbledore made of the Potter states, he nodded off at the couch for a moment and she started to scream suddenly, being her annoying self. In a moment of blinding rage, he hissed at her. Parsel rushing out of his mouth as natural as breathing, and he didn’t notice it until he calmed down and realized Walburga was staring at him in silence.

The look she had in her face then was so comical that he laughed until he couldn’t breath and tears fell from his face. If only he discovered how easy it'd be to shut her up _years_ ago! And surprises of surprises, she talked to him then. It was the first conversation of many. Once she learned of how many Lordships he has and the blood-adoption that allowed him to inherit the Black state, she accepted him, reluctantly. He believed, for a short naive moment, that he found a way to have peace. How innocent of him.

That first and long talk lead to him being scream at almost daily, but now because she felt the need to train him to stand up to the standards of what a Black Lord should be. He studied then, if only to get her to shut up, more than he ever did at Hogwarts. Laws, politics, family magic, family trees and other relations — and who knew, he had more family than he ever thought possible.

###### 1998 – Grimmauld Place – Break up?

One evening, before September 1st, Ginny visited him.

After Walburga decided to taught him how to activate properly the numerous wards around the house, nobody could apparate or floo inside without permission, so Ginny was waiting at the front door. She looked awkwardly at him before entering and both sat in the lounge with an uncomfortable silence.

“Harry, I…” she sounded uncertain, very un-Ginny like, and she was fidgeting with the cup of tea Kreacher served her. “I-I want to talk with y-you…?” Her eyes keep going from his face to her hands all the while.

He knew, or suspected at least, what this ‘talk’ was about. They ended things before the war because Harry didn’t want to put her under unnecessary risk, she complained a lot, but in the end, had no choice but to accept as he left with Hermione and Ron. The war changed them though, making them grow up faster than they already did under the dangerous situations they experienced at Hogwarts the previous years. After the war they barely talked, but maybe she wanted to talk about _them_ now?

“Look Harry, I can’t go on like this… I want to finish school, maybe play quidditch, but mum…” She sighed softly and looked at him, her eyes strong but pained. “Mum is driving me insane to be truthful.”

Harry opened his eyes big, watching her drinking her tea, he wasn’t expecting _that_. “Hmm… What happened with your mum? She doesn’t want you to play quidditch…?”

“No, no. It’s not that…” She sighed again, drank more tea and continued. “Well, at least that’s not all of it. She’s bothering me all the time about you!” She said with exasperation, putting the empty cup down with a loud clunk that made Harry flinch. “We’ve barely...hum…” With a huff, she stood and started pacing, “We’ve barely kissed, like, twice! And-and she… I don’t know! It’s like she expects us to marry already.” Harry looks as she smothers her hair down with an angry growl, staring with wide eyes and not a little bit confused.

“Did you tell her that we aren’t...?” He asks and Ginny’s nod confuses him, “Then, why…?” Not knowing what he really wants to ask, Harry trails off. At the end of the war they had a tentative kiss, tried to restart their relationship as there wasn’t a noose pending at Harry’s neck anymore, but things weren’t the same. He felt like all the time apart made him feel different about her, but never really having the strength to tell her as much. He knew she would ask sometime and expected to be ready to give her a definitive answer then, he certainly didn’t feel ready right now.

“Look, Harry, you’re a good guy, but you haven’t even talked to me in months and I don’t know what to think about that kiss… What are we? Are we a couple? Aren’t we? Actually, I don’t even know if I want us to be…” Harry flinches and Ginny grimaces, realizing how harsh her words may have sound to him, “I-I mean, we just kissed and mum is driving me up the walls. I don’t want to think what she’ll do if I tell her we’re a thing again and she starts planning the wedding!” Harry is the one to grimace now and Ginny misses it as she has her back at him, “Or worse, the grandchildren!”

She’s breathing heavily at the end of her tirade while Harry can just look at her horrified. Pacing around, the wild movement of hands start again after a moment, “I’m too young to marry, or have children!!!” Harry feels capable of breathing again at her words now and with relief takes a gulp of tea. “I heard her whispering around the house about how Bill and Fleur were expecting and how good it would be for us to hurry up so the kids can grow up together, and I don’t want to imagine how many more ideas like that she has in her head.”

Harry is in so much shock at this that he can’t think clearly. They look at each other in silence for a few minutes and she sits again, getting another cuppa and both get a moment to regain their bearings.

“I’m sorry Ginny. I don’t know what… Actually, I-I think I feel the same. I don’t think I want that…” He passes his hands over his hair, making it messier, and gives her a tired smile thinking about his ex-girlfriend’s words. “You know what, I think I need a holiday,” he snorts remembering how Mione and Ron left without him, maybe he needs to leave too…

Ginny looks at him with surprise and a little envy, sighing wistfully.

They talk for another couple of minutes and get to an agreement. They will keep being friends, but there is no future for their previous short-lived relationship.

“I wish I could do the same but, it’s another — at least one — year at Hogwarts for me. Good luck Harry.”


	2. Set me free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After three years of travelling, the ‘Chosen One’ returns.  
> Everyone has a big shock when they meet the new Harry Potter.  
> For his part, Harry himself doesn’t give much of a fuck about some people’s opinion anymore.

###### 2001 – Ministry of Magic – Returning home

A wizard dressed entirely in black; trousers, shirt, long coat and boots, muggle sunglasses with iridescent-green lenses, appeared at the lobby of the International Portkeys Transportation point, at the Ministry. Long black hair covered his fringe, falling to the middle of his back. People around him stared, while the man walked away. One thing he never missed from this place was all the unwanted attention, Harry thought with a low growl as he walked away.

One Hermione Weasley née Granger was exasperated with the apparently infinite amount of paperwork accumulated on her desk. After years of fighting to get the position she was in now, it felt like a really let down to discover how different her work is from what she was expecting. The piles of paper were blocking her view of the door, which kept her from noticing the dark figure that opened her office’s door a while ago.

Harry watched Hermione working for a while, staring at the frown she carries on her face with amusement. With a smile on his face, he calls for her attention a few minutes later as it seems she won’t notice him otherwise. “You know,” he talks with a deep voice, startling Hermione who jumps in her seat and looks up sharply, “If you keep frowning like that, you’ll get wrinkles, Mione.” She shots upright from her chair and in a quick movement her wand is tightly grasped in her hand, “Wow, easy there!”

Startled from her rather furious singing of papers, she looks at him warily and curious. He, all dressed in black and giving away a powerful aura, raises his hands in a placating manner, smiling at her until some semblance of recognition floats on her face.

“Harry?!”

He answers her with a soft laugh, and slowly moves his hand to remove the sunglasses as she’s still pointing her wand in his direction.

“Hey Mione.”

Harry spends all his day chatting with his friend afterwards, happy to see her again after so long; they sent owls regularly over the years, but it wasn’t the same.

She told him everything that happened in more detail, her wedding ten months ago, how many of their friends are married and even have children now, her job, and the rest of the Weasleys lives.

Fleur and Bill had a beautiful daughter that Molly spoiled rotten. George married Angelina, had one kid that they named Fred in honour to his twin and were expecting another. Neville and Hanna had twins not long ago and wanted more. Luna married Rolf Scamander and went away to travel with him after her father passed away. Ginny became a pro quidditch player with the Harpies a few months ago. Percy married Penelope and became the head of his own department, after he lost the last of his snooty attitude; and showing the famous Weasley propensity to big families, had triplets a year ago. Ron works alongside Arthur, as the Chudley Cannons team was finally disbanded and he lost the job as the manager assistant. Finally, Charlie revealed his long-time boyfriend and got into a shouting match with Molly who ended up kicking him from the Burrow, although everyone else still talks and welcome him into their houses, something that irks Molly like nothing else.

In the way back to the floo point he met Narcissa, who had some wrinkles beginning to appear on her still beautiful face. She was holding the hand of a little boy who recognised him even with his glasses on, running up to Harry and asking for an autograph.

It was amusing seeing the face of little Scorpius Malfoy, excited about meeting ‘The Harry Potter’, even more so when Draco appeared not long after and his son keep saying how amazing it was that his father knew someone like The Man Who Lived.

Somehow the child convinced Harry (and his parents) to visit for dinner that weekend, as they are family. The little rascal was cute and knew how to use his puppy-eyed look to get what he wants, no surprises if he ends up in Slithering in the future.

The funniest part was Draco’s suffering smile. He was unable to deny anything to his son.

Finally, once back at home, Kreacher and Walburga greeted him and he was able to rest.

* * *

Harry wasn’t surprised, when Friday came around and he visited the Burrow, that he ended up fighting with Ron. That doesn’t mean he isn’t disappointed though.

He changed, a lot. The last three years were a really eye-opener experience for him. Travelling around the world showed him many things that he wasn’t expecting. He became friends with werewolves who were surprised that a wizard didn’t cower in fear from them, he befriended a vampire who was under a curse and helped breaking it. He befriended dark wizards who didn’t try to kill him for once and even saved a lethifold from a wizard that had the poor thing captive for tests for years. And for some reason the thing now follows him everywhere; the lazy creature acts more like a cat than the man-eating menace that is supposed to be, going as far as purring to him when he pets the overly cuddly ball of cold shadows.

All his travels gifted him with vast knowledge and understanding over things he before judged without really _knowing_. These changes were received with a strong dislike by Ron, who became even more of a close-minded person than before... if that was even possible.

Harry can’t understand how Hermione and Ron are compatible enough that they are happily married, it confuses him to no end.

The breaking point of the entire terrible day was when Harry commented about meeting little Scorpius and the child’s fascination with him. The moment he mentioned the invitation to the Malfoy’s for dinner, Ron went mad.

Ron called him many things that night and he retaliated in kind, he wasn’t the scrawny young boy who feared to anger his first friend and losing him anymore. He and Ron drifted apart a long time ago but he had a small shred of hope that they could keep their friendship, but that didn’t mean that he was going to let the brat step on him because of misplaced jealousy or whatever the hell is wrong with him now, like he did many times before. They are grown-up men now and Ron should know better already.

When Ron took his wand in hand, everyone stood still. His ‘friend’ cursed him. Or tried to… After all the adventures he’d had, Harry is positively deathly with his wand after all.

Once the curse crashed against his shield his expression changed, his previous relaxed demeanour became cold and his stance rigid. Hermione, Ron and Harry were the only ones who knew what that curse in particular is capable of, after all, they never shared with anyone else the story about Snape’s old potions book and how Harry almost killed Malfoy. But Hermione’s outrage and Harry’s hateful glare told everyone else that whatever Ron shot wasn’t good in the slightless.

Hermione proceeded to scream at Ron like Harry never heard before. Everyone stayed silent, even Molly, surprisingly. After a long rant, Hermione explained exactly what kind of curse Ron used, signing Ron’s fate. To say that the family was angry would be an understatement. Ron kept a disbelieving stare on his face all the while absolutely everyone shouted at him, no one showing a crumb of support for him for the first time in his life.

And like always, his reaction was anger. He started to yell again, fighting against everything his family said with weak and lame excuses. Finally, when he realized that he wasn’t going to be forgiven as easily as usual, he blamed Harry from putting his family against him, saying that he was becoming dark and no one could see it but Ron himself. Then, he disapparated.

The family was left in shock by Ron’s actions and unfounded accusations while Harry hugged a sobbing Hermione. Molly and Arthur left to their room while everyone else gave their apologies and likewise left to their respective houses. In the end, Ginny was the only one to stay in the kitchen and started cleaning the table while Hermione calmed down.

The three of them cleaned the dishes and before he left Molly made a weak attempt to excuse Ron’s actions. That only angered Harry even more, who turned on the spot and apparated away before Molly started to nag him about not breaking such an old and dear friendship.

Harry went to sleep that night knowing that that was the end of his friendship with Ron, but oddly at peace. Even if Molly didn’t understand, he knew he had the support of the rest of the family. Ginny and Hermione made that clear before he left. That was enough for Harry.

Hermione was always a better friend than Ron could ever wish to be anyway. He could always count on her, while Ron always left when things turned to his disadvantage. This was the last time Harry will put up with Ron and it felt more of a relief than a loss.

* * *

One chilly morning of December, Harry is surprised when he receives an unexpected visit. There, on his doorstep, stands the Ministry of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

To his shock, the man offered to put a word for him to enter the Auror training program that will be starting after new year. Even after all the years away from Britain, his name still means something, or so it seems. He was grateful and took the offer in stride, receiving all the papers needed for his official application with an owl the next day.

After enjoying the best holidays in years with friends and his godson, he was ready for the training to start.

The Auror training program consists of three parts. The first is written exams, the second is a year of intensive training with a practical exam at the end of it, and the third and final part is the undertaking of a mentoring with one of the Aurors already in the field who will become their partner for the next three years and teach them the ropes of their jobs.

Hermione was overjoyed when he told her about his decision of becoming an Auror and happily shared her old notes from school so he could self-study and prepare for the exams.

Walburga’s mood wasn’t the best after learning of his decision. The woman could be an outright snob most of the time, but working was something that she was adamant about. “No Lord of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black works, we are not commoners,” or that was the simple and completely _logical_ reason she gave him for not joining the MLE. Which is why he didn’t mind her at all.

January came and his tutoring lessons started. Generally, aspiring Aurors simply go to the exams at the beginning of August as they are mostly Hogwarts graduates, the tutoring Harry is assisting is for those who didn’t sit their NEWT’s for whatever reason (like him) or those who are home-schooled and would have been tested at the ministry. The results of the exams at the end of the tutoring will be then presented at the Ministry as their NEWT’s scores.

As Harry doesn’t have any NEWT’s scores, he can apply for as many exams as he wants, and he does so. He studies hard for the next seven months and the results show as much.

Friday sixteen was the last day of tutoring, the following two weeks the exams took place, and Friday six of September found the entire group who took the exams with rolls of parchment being delivered in a big room at the MoM.

“...and that is the last one.” The voice of the WEA’s governor sounds loudly over the room because of a _sonorus_ , he is a big and blond balding man that makes Harry remember Vernon except that this guy has a sense of humour. “Now, let’s welcome the Minister of Magic. Kingsley Shacklebolt! Mr Shacklebolt will give you all some words of welcoming. Minister…” The fat man leaves the podium and the Minister takes his place, starting his speech with a congratulations to all of them for completing the exams.

Harry breaks the seal of his scroll then, as Kingsley speaks in the background, and smirks as he reads the results.

His travels abroad are the only reason why he could take the test on many of the subjects available. School is one thing, real life is another, and most of the time a great bitch. He had to learn by force many things, mostly to get out of sticky situations because as his luck will have it, his incredibly ridiculous adventures continued even after Hogwarts.

The exams were divided in theory and practical but the results are just one thing and he has four EE (Arithmancy, Astronomy, Herbology, History of Magic), six O’s (Alchemy, Ancient Runes, Charms, COMC, Dark Arts, Potions) and three O+ (DADA, Magical Law, Transfiguration). Arithmancy is something he only learned since Hermione passed him her old school notes, while Alchemy and Ancient Runes he learned during his ‘holidays’ and the tutoring helped with the parts of theory he didn’t really understood before; but he got better at Potions thanks to trial and error mostly, needing them more than once to survive while on his own.

Most of the other subjects he already had a good grasp on because of Hogwarts, except for the Dark Arts which he was surprised to learn that Aurors have the opportunity to be taught them without repercussion as they’re expected to recognise the spells and counteract them.

Then, the few O+ he’s got are because he’s an [Emberlark](https://themonsterblogofmonsters.tumblr.com/post/130711615848/firestart-emberlark-a-lesser-cousin-of-the) animagus, because Walburga made him memorize the laws until he could remember them better than a lawyer, and because he got talking with the examiner of the DADA test and the guy said that with the amount of Horcruxes he’s destroyed he could get even a mastery on the subject; that without counting that he killed a Dark Lord by eighteen, fought and killed a basilisk by twelve, and ‘tamed’ a lethifold by twenty.

Or maybe a mastery in COMC, at least.

###### 2002 – The Burrow – And how everything went to hell once more

Between Hermione’s work, Ginny’s practice, George’s shop and other things, Harry’s party for getting into the training program got postponed to the following weekend as Molly insisted on doing it at the Burrow.

Once in a while Harry though of Ginny. He used to desire a big and loving family, which for a while he believed he could get alongside Ginny, then Voldemort and the war happened and for some reason he stopped thinking of her in that way, and later Ginny herself visited Grimmauld and talked to him, putting in words what he couldn’t as he didn’t understood what he wanted at the time.

They broke up peacefully and it was good for some time, until one night. The night of the party.

As usually, Molly insisted on him staying to spend time with the family as he was a loved ‘member’ of it. As Ron tended to do lately, he wasn’t at the house when Harry visited, not that he minded as the youngest male Weasley has zero control of himself and would’ve ruined the party. Since their discussion many years ago, it wasn’t an unusual occurrence for the ginger to attack him out of nowhere.

So, Ron was absent, which meant Hermione probably will go away early to avoid making him angrier. But Ginny, George, Angelina and the kids were there so it was fine.

That is, until he went to sleep.

Nothing unusual happened before everything became confusing, maybe Molly was too pushing about tea after dinner but it never crossed Harry’s mind to doubt her. At least, not of doing something like what actually happened.

With his mind a bit dizzy and his last memories of the previous night somewhat confusing, Harry woke up the next day to the shrill scream of a mad Ginny. A mad _and naked_ Ginny.

With a fully blooming headache and no recollection of the events leading to them ending in that situation, Harry wasn’t sure what to do. He wasn’t a virgin, he had an inkling of an idea of what happened, how though was another different thing entirely.

When everyone went down to the kitchen after Ginny calmed down, Molly was suspiciously gleeful while everyone else was concerned at his and Ginny’s anger. She couldn’t remember the previous night, just like him. The only evidence of their actions where their sore bodies and the dirty sheets.

George tried to calm Ginny while Angelina took care of little Fred who woke up abruptly and scared. Arthur asked him what happened and Harry sincerely said he couldn’t remember. Molly on the other hand, disappeared into the kitchen to prepare breakfast; taking advantage of their distraction, he flooed the MLE. His training may have just started but he wasn’t stupid, he’d recognise the effects of love potions after so many thrown at him while at Hogwarts.

He gave a quick explanation to the guy that took his call, asking for an investigation, and the guy was quick to agree. He went to sit beside Ginny, who was now sobbing, and explained what he did; she surprised him when she was grateful instead of mad at him. Not long after, an entourage of Aurors flooed into the Burrow to the surprise of everyone.

The family, and a nervous Molly who tried to hide into the kitchen with the excuse of cooking the food, where put outside under the vigilance of a couple of Aurors while three other registered the rest of the house looking for evidence. The silence at the garden was broken when the leader of the team came out of the house, stunned Molly mid-rant, and gave them the news with a sour look on his face.

“Mrs Weasley is now under arrest for the illegal brewing and administration of a love potion. Fortunately, the brewed amortentia was weak and the effects were quick to disappear but she’ll face a trial for her actions nonetheless.”

Ginny cried some more, angry that her own mother would betray her like that while the rest of the family reacted with various degrees of disbelief and anger to the matriarch’s actions. Arthur took it worse than all of them, going as far as to ask to present charges with the Aurors in the name of his daughter.

“I’d like to hear the reason for her actions if you don’t mind, Auror Platt. I want to know what she has to say for herself,” Harry asked with a hardened stance. The Auror had no problems with his request.

Harry was unrecognizable to the others as it was just the second time he sported such a cold demeanour and hateful eyes. Arthur, who recognised the look as the same he gave Ron when his son attacked Harry the first time, feared what Molly words would be, and at the same time thought that she may deserve whatever she gets in the future for poisoning two members of their family like she did.

“I’m sorry guys…” Harry told them as the Auror prepared to wake Molly.

“It’s fine Harry, it isn’t your fault. I don’t know what she was thinking but I’d like to find out too.” Arthur gave both, Harry and Ginny a hug, calming his own nerves in the process and waiting for things to be set up.

“Very well, I will give you a few minutes, ask away. Lucien, Stone, be ready for anything.” The Auror enervated Molly and left them in the kitchen with the two Aurors to watch for any trouble and walked away. “Parson! Go back to the station and prepare the paperwork.”

The chimney activated as said Auror left, flooing back to the DMLE, at the same time that the shouts of rage from Molly filled the Burrow once she recovered her composure and everyone heard with shock the terrible words coming out of her mouth.

“Argh! You! You little good for nothing you ruined it!” Molly shouted, looking directly at Harry and surprising everyone by the level of disgust she showed at him. “You ruined everything and called Aurors into my home! I knew I should have listened to Albus and never leave you out of my sight! BUT NO, my own daughter decided to turn you away!!! We could have become a wealthy and powerful family again,” she turned her hateful eyes at Ginny then, spitting words that would made, from that day on, lost the love of her family, “IF ONLY YOU HEARD ME AND STAYED FOR A LITTLE WHILE WITH HIM!!!”

Harry shocked his head, so many years after Dumbledore’s death and things keep coming to light about all the shitty things the old man did, he felt disgusted. Unknown to him, many others in the room started to share his strong dislike of the man. Meanwhile, Molly kept screaming her lungs out…

“We only needed you to get pregnant with his child and there was no need for you to stand this brat if you didn’t want to afterwards. Then, all our problems would have ended!”

Arthur then tried to talk with the woman, but only to become the next focus of her ire.

“WHY?! Why did I have to marry such a useless man as you Arthur Weasley? Since the first moment my mother told me, but I didn’t heed her warnings because I thought you were more intelligent than to lose all the Weasley money for a stupid feud. WITH THE MALFOYS! Then you go and tell me we don’t need the money when we have a loving family. Well guess what, LOVE DOESN’T FILL EMPTY STOMACHS ARTHUR!”

They keep silent, waiting as she regains her breath, knowing that her rant is far from finished. Arthur tough, takes a seat with heartache clear on his face. Harry feels sorry for him, unknowingly married to such a bitch for so many years…

Molly looks once more to Ginny then and restarts her screaming, “He was the solution to that and you let him go away, didn’t I TEACH YOU NOTHING ALL THIS YE-”

The spell that stunned her this time came, surprisingly, from Arthur himself. “I don’t need to listen anymore. This woman is not the woman I loved and the mother of my children. I don’t recognize her anymore…” Arthur shook his head and everyone noticed that he was crying.

Ginny leaves Harry and takes her father out of the house, hugging him. George and his family follow them without a backward glance at the woman in the kitchen.

“Take her away,” orders Auror Platt with a look of disgust at Molly. “If you don’t mind Lord Potter, I’ll take your statement now.”

Harry sighed warily, already tired and it wasn’t even noon. He sits at the table and nods at the Auror, preparing for what is to come next.

* * *

The headlines the following week were all about the trial of Molly Weasley for the use of an illegal substance Ministry regulated, the fall from grace with her family and Harry Potter, the divorce that Arthur started, the disowning as a Prewitt since Charlie acquired the Prewitt Lordship, and as usually many crazy hypothesis from the journalists.

Ginny tried to ask Harry for forgiveness, why, he doesn’t know. It wasn’t her fault as he saw it and he told her as much with a smile and a reassuring hug. The same happened the next time Arthur saw him, or any other Weasley for that matter.

Except for Ron.

To him everything was Harry’s fault and there wasn’t any power in the world that could make him see it any other way. He went as far as attacking him again, in the middle of Diagon Alley this time, and trying to hit him as hard as he was capable.

None on his spells went close to Harry, who kept the stupid boy busy until someone in the alley woke up and called the MLE. Mother and son now, were at MLE holding cells. Waiting trial for their attacks on his person.

Molly’s trial lead to even more scandals, as she ranted to her heart’s content and no one bothered to silence her. The more she talked the more skeletons in her closet (and Dumbledore’s) were revealed. She talked about how the plot was planned many years ago in the company of Albus, not only was amortentia used that night on him and Ginny, she doused him for years while he was at Hogwarts with other less potent love potions to make him react to Ginny in a slowly and seemingly ‘normal’ way, making him fall in ‘love’ with her daughter one step at a time.

And he messed her plans for the first time when the horcrux hunting trip took place and later when he left for three years. _That_ is why he returned to Hogwarts after a few months and he didn’t feel ‘in love’ with Ginny anymore.

But that wasn’t everything. He was supposed to die too.

After Ginny had their first child, Harry was going to have an accident, leaving her — or more like Molly — with total control of all of his assets.

As people say, the apple never falls far from the tree. Truest words were never said about one Ronald Billius Weasley who, as Molly ranted unstoppably, it was discovered, that he knew everything about her mother’s plans. With this revelation, Ron was immediately brought to the Wizengamot session, after a short break, and afterwards questioned under veritaserum like his mother.

Everyone heard in shock as Ron revealed even more scandalous things to the public. He was only ever close to Harry with the purpose of becoming his ‘friend’ and like this get him closer to Ginny and his mother’s control, saying that he’d never gotten close to the ‘dead trap walking’ that is Harry if not for the money his mother promised they’d get out of him.

Not long after the questioning ended, Molly and Ron were promptly sentenced to Azkaban after being found guilty for poisoning two persons with amortentia, intent of line-thief, intent of thief and intent of murder. They will never get out of there.

The papers made a big profit with the news as the scandals didn’t end up there. Hermione, once again Granger, made the papers not long after the trial.

* * *

Hermione decided to leave everything behind, hurt and disappointed with her failed marriage and unfulfilling job. The MACUSA received her with open arms as they got nothing but good words from her previous bosses. Harry didn’t blame her, some days he felt like leaving everything behind once more, like his did a few years back.

The year on his training ended without any more unwanted and disturbing revelations, thank Merlin! He was one of the best of his group and started the mentoring and the last part of his training. He became a newbie Auror and focused in his job. He continued with his life and enjoyed it, except when he had to write the missions reports who were a nuisance.

Ginny continued playing quidditch, until she met a woman four years later and married her, surprising everyone as they didn’t know she was bisexual. Harry thought it was funny, as he found himself liking blokes at the same time, not that he didn’t find women attractive sometimes too.

And as they say, life goes on...


	3. The incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And, even a decade later, things keep surprising him…

###### 2011 – Grimmauld Place – Dumbledore, again?!

The last night of the year brought to Harry a mysterious letter, Nicholas Flamel wanted to talk to him about something important.

Flamel proposed to meet in a week on a restaurant in France, where they could have a private conversation. As Harry didn’t have any problem with that and found himself curious about what the man may want, he sent a reply with his agreement and waited for the time of their meeting to arrive.

Something he wasn’t expecting happened when they met. The man was asking him if he could help to retrieve an invaluable possession of his, making Harry realize once more how many of Dumbledore’s machinations ruined other people’s lives. After so many years, things keep coming to the light, unbelievably as it was.

Mr Flamel was disappointed to learn that his stone was apparently destroyed because Dumbledore lied to him that it was kept in a safe place. Harry didn’t have a problem taking veritaserum to confirm what he told Flamel, and so, the man left disheartened.

Two years later, a letter from Gringotts took Harry’s breath away. Flamel died, leaving him all of their (Nicolas and his wife’s) earthly possessions. For someone who lived for so long, he didn’t have many friends. Only two others attended his will reading, Harry was surprised to meet Luna and her husband there.

The many journals of research that Flamel recorded along the line were pretty interesting. Harry grew a love of alchemy on his travels and it became bigger as he read Flamel’s recorded research over the following years, always conscious that some of it was incredibly dangerous and thankful for the trust the man put in him when sharing such things.

###### 2017 – St Mungo’s – And how dying is so problematic

Many times over the years, Harry wondered if he was really lucky or it was something else. He was badly injured many times and every time it got him thinking about how in the blazes did he survived those situations. Not that he wanted to die but...one too many times, it was a really damn close call.

And now, working as an Auror, his life is even more dangerous.

Healers always admired his healing rate, as it was above normal, even for a wizard. They passed it off as his over-the-charts levels of magicka, but he got a feeling it was something else and generally his instincts are pretty good about this kind of stuff.

This time, as it became a common occurrence, healers observed him with curiosity as injuries that would have killed anyone else, mended like they were nothing out of the ordinary.

_Everything started at Hogsmeade..._

There was someone kidnaping students at the Hogsmeade weekends and he was given the case to investigate. It was a desperate situation and he became more and more frustrated since the guy was difficult to catch.

His partner, who got injured fighting the guy the previous weekend, was stationed at the other end of the village, so he was alone when a shade took shape on a dark alleyway and stunned a student.

Under the effects of disillusionment, Harry follows the guy who could be his target. Sending a Patronus to his partner the first time he gets the change to hide behind a tree. Hopeful that his partner will find his way quickly, Harry turns into his animagus form and follows the shadow ahead of him, hiding in the branches of the trees thanks to his little black bird form.

The suspect takes the stunned student all the way to the cave system on the mountains, beyond the village. He can’t let him escape so, backup or no backup, he enters too into the dark cave.

Fortunately, his partner finds him. Unfortunately, their suspect discovers them.

The suspect throws a spell in his partner's direction and at the same time Harry transforms back. Everything happens in a question of seconds, but they’re stuck in his memory with a painful and sharp clarity that makes him flinch.

The suspect’s spell ricochets from his partner’s shield, hitting the ceiling and making the earth shake dangerously. With an unconscious movement, Harry is waving a protective ward around the cells holding the kids behind the suspect that he’s just noticed, focusing as hard as he can while the other two men wobble on their feet and rocks start to fall all around them.

The cave-in happens in seconds, but for Harry, it all happened really slow. As he finished waving the ward, darkness closes in all around. They’re dead.

Or so he thought.

What happened next… takes him a while to register, so he goes through it slowly.

After darkness engulfed him, he ‘woke up’ at the same King’s Cross Station of many years before. The blinding whiteness and his surroundings where the same as last time, but the difference was that there was no Dumbledore waiting for him this time. And thank Merlin for small mercies or he would have beaten the crap out of the guy, dead or not, he would have found a way.

So, instead of old scheming Dumbles, there is someone else. He looks like a tall and gaunt man, oddly with his same eye colour and pale skin, but, he holds a big kickass _scythe_.

! ! !

Warning bells ring in his head as the man smiled mischievously at him, and Harry knows then that he’s doomed.

**_≻_ _Finally!_ _≺_** The man...no, Death, says with a low and rough voice. Deep, like an old-time smoker and with an otherworldly echo that makes it clear he’s _not_ human. **_≻_ _I thought you'd never come! That you’ve forgotten about me!_ _≺_**

“Hmm…” Harry doesn’t know how to answer to that. It’s not like he can forget someone he’s never met, but he can’t possibly say that to him, that, it?… Argh, whatever!

**_≻_ _Right..._ _≺_** Death pops his tongue… Does he have a tongue? This is so weird… **_≻_ _So sorry..._ _≺_** He extends his hand, the one who isn’t holding the scythe, and waits until Harry awkwardly gets closer and shakes it.

Death smiles.

Harry shudders.

**_≻_ _I am_ _Death, a pleasure to meet you..._ _≺_** He trails off and Harry is about to answer because, well, he’s polite; and Death continues, _**≻...Master.≺**_

That startles the kneazles off of him and Harry looks dumbly at the man in front of him. Harry wants to say something, anything, but all that comes out is a lousy “Whut…?”

Death chortles, startling Harry, _**≻See, that was my same reaction right there!≺**_ he doubled over laughing while Harry gaps like a fish out of water. **_≻When I watched you get the three damn trinkets, I thought, ‘Whut?! That’s not possible!’ and Fate laughed at me and I may have gotten angry, but, well… lesson learned, I guess. Never bet against Fate!≺_** Death points a finger at Harry with seriousness but changes quickly to a relaxed stance after shrugging. _**≻But, I mean, you got them completely by luck! It’s like… Are you kidding me?! I put a lot of obstacles, because I knew Fate would get a kick out of it if some measly mortal got one over me, but then, when the time for the bet is almost up, you appear out of nowhere and just by being there and doing nothing they fall into your hands like-like nothing!!!**_ **What the bloody hell kid?!** _ **≺**_

Harry flinches back as Death gets riled up with his rant and the entity looks down at him with a frown and coughs on his closed fist awkwardly. **_≻Sorry about that. It’s just that it gets to me you know.≺_** Death grimaces while shaking his head and Harry nods not knowing what else to do. _**≻If someone wanted to control me** , they needed to **work hard** for it, or so I thought...≺_ Death sighs, crossing his arms and glaring at Harry with contemptuous. _**≻But then again, you didn’t even know what you were getting into. You didn’t want me under your control.**_ **You thought I was a myth!** _ **≺**_ He spits the last word with distaste and Harry flinches again.

It was true, all of it. When he was alone in the tent, more than once, he laughed at the idea of people believing that they could Master _Death_. It seemed completely bollocks! As if that was possible, he thought many times, laughing at the naivete of some people like Luna’s father who was obsessed about the Tale of the Three Brothers. He laughed at Grindelwald and Dumbledore too. And now, maybe, they were laughing at him…

**_≻But, that’s also the reason why I like you.≺_** Death surprises him saying that.

Harry blinks, confused and wary. What?

**_≻You’re a simple guy, who wants to live his life and couldn’t care less about using others like people usually do, not even that little elf who loves you so much that died for you. You aren’t power-hungry, bloodthirsty or stupid like most of those who tried to pick my trinkets for their own benefit. So I can accept that Fate won and I lost.≺_** Death takes an assessing look of Harry and smiles. _**≻I have a nice guy to share my powers and responsibilities with. At least, you aren’t as crazy as the one Time got stuck with, I swear that Doctor lost it with so much time travel and what have you...≺**_

Harry feels like an owl after so long of staring and blinking dumbly. He can’t understand much as it is very confusing and his words seem to slip over Harry’s brain. It’s too much, all of it.

Too much.

He shakes his head and notices that Death is still mumbling about things he doesn’t understand and his brain thinks that maybe is better that way. So, he coughs pointedly, cutting the monologue as Death focuses his attention on him once more.

_**≻Well? Any questions?≺**_ Death asks suddenly and Harry has so many of them. Where to start? He doesn’t know. Death has baffled him. And maybe he took a second too many to answer because Death is at it again… _**≻Okay then, we can go directly to business!≺**_

“Business?” Harry asks dumbly. He feels really dumb right now. This isn’t going to be good for his mental health, he knows it. Or his health at all for that matter…

_**≻Yes, you know, stating limits and all that...≺**_ Death shrugs and suddenly he’s looking scary again. Harry has whiplash with the suddenness of the entity’s mood swings. _**≻For some reason, humans think that they can cheat or escape me forever. You should know about it, what with Tom and everything...≺**_ And then he’s smiling again, looking into the distance and ignoring Harry’s nod. But a sullen look replaces the smile. _**≻Filthy cheater!≺**_ Death hisses and starts cursing under his breath.

“Right… So, I died?” Harry asked to avoid having another moment where Death starts ranting about things that makes no sense and makes his brain hurt.

Death turns to him, cocking his head and blinking as if trying to understand why he got asked something so dumb. _**≻You are...≺**_ He answers slowly and doubting himself. Did he make a mistake? This human didn’t seem stupid… _**≻But, not for long if I have any say in it. And I do.≺**_

“I still don’t understand why I-”

_**≻Look,≺**_ Death sighs, pinching his nose, _**≻Things are like this. Y o u d i e d.≺**_ He says very slowly, as if talking to a child. Harry frowns angrily. **_≻But you collected the h a l l o w s.≺_** Harry growls and Death smirks. Did the kid finally catch up, Death wonders. It wouldn’t do to have a Master that cowers under him, it won’t do at all. **_≻So, no. You can’t stay here. I’ll send you back.≺_**

Harry wanted to ask something, but Death wouldn’t let him, talking over him. **_≻As I said, I was waiting for you. With the amount of nearly dead experiences you’ve had over the years, I was expecting you here sooner than this. But, whatever. From now on, your powers will awake. We share a bond...thanks to_ Fate.≺** Death spits the name and takes a deep breath before continuing, _**≻That meddlesome old codger of Dumbledore messed a lot with you all your life, but what you don’t know is that he also used a really old ritual, lost to the world thanks to him as he destroyed all evidence of it, and blocked a part of your magic and some latent abilities of yours. Considering that my powers are yours from now on, the block will be gone when you awake next. Here, have these books, you’ll need them. Necromancy was a gift a gave to mortals at the beginning of time, but the theory behind the use of it has been lost for ages thanks to ignorants like Dumbledore. You’ll do fine in reading about it unless you want to walk around raising inferi and killing with a thought. That would be... bothersome... for the both of us.≺**_

With the movement of a hand, many books floated to Harry, some of the titles surprised him while others scared him. Necromancy, really? He has to study that now? One caught his attention as it floated right in front of his face, ‘Guide to becoming a Grim Reaper’ was its name.

_**≻You’ll be as good as me, with time, when it comes to souls. Creating them, absorbing them, sending one to their afterlife or the reincarnation wheel, whatever. Anything related to souls? You’ll be able to do it. And beware, you’ll kill with your touch as good as your thoughts. I recommend you read the guide before leaving. There are many friends around your body at the moment and it’s only my influence that it’s keeping their souls in place.≺** _

With a shudder at the thought of killing his own friends, his _family,_ Harry grabs the book and starts absorbing the knowledge with just the minimum of attention on whatever Death wants to say next.

_**≻If you have questions you have but to call, I have obligations but I also have many others working for me that can take care of things for a moment or two. By the way, you’ll be able to see people’s souls even if they’re alive, that book will tell you everything about it. You’ll see many weird shit too, angels, reapers, Gods, you get the gist. Also, some of the others may visit, they all get worked up when one of us gets a Master, Bonded, or what have you. If you see War tough, kick his balls off for me, the bastard gives me lots of paperwork and I hate it... Oh, by the way, Mondays are my days off...≺** _

_**≻...Fate is a bitch too, be wary of her, she’s the one who choose to meddle in your life to get you tied to me...≺** _

_**≻...Time is a pal, Life too, the three of us are the oldest out there... Sometimes I wish it was just the three of us again... much less hassle, you know?≺** _

_**≻...flying monkeys! It was a crazy world... and then it went boom! Ha, ha ,ha!≺** _

_**≻...disco ball vampires, hilarious!≺** _

_**≻...et out of here! Harry and I are quite busy right now to pay attention to you Albus, be thankful that I haven’t...≺** _

_**≻...Hades! So good of you to join us...≺** _

_**≻...t do you mean they burnt the library? What in Oblivion where they doing?≺** _

_**≻...course, of course. Here he is. Harry! ...Harry? ... When did he left?!≺** _

_And he came back to himself suddenly, startling everyone…_

Waking up, Harry met the concerned gaze of Ginny, George, a bit further away Narcissa, at the door was an Auror talking with Kingsley, and entering the room was Neville.

He had a headache, besides the entire ache of _everything_.

His miracle recovery, after the healers had to practically piece him together after they found him buried but alive, got him saddled with the moniker of The Man Who Won’t Die a few days later by the papers.

If only they knew…

Harry was prodded by the healers a lot, but in the end, he recovered and left. He had a terrible day, followed by a terrible week of recovering, followed by a month of many Unspeakables nosing around trying to get him to talk about his miraculous healing factor or whatever secret he had that kept him alive.

His only recurring thought afterwards was that dying was a nuisance.

Very much like controlling the new abilities that gave him constant headaches. It was so damn difficult to keep his thoughts straight to avoid killing someone… Why do some people have to be so damn obnoxious?

* * *

Oddly enough, he became friends with none other than Draco Malfoy. It was at his insistence, after Scorpius begged him for another story of the ‘amazing Harry Potter’, that Harry started writing books based on his life. Real books, not that rubbish with false stories that some people created about him when he was a kid.

At first, it was about his adventures at school with his friends and he did it because he wanted to amuse Scorpius and Teddy. But after the third book, and after he finally got all that he needed to get published, he started to like it, becoming really passionate about it. If he had any free time, he used it to write something else.

The smug look Draco had on his face after getting a mention in the last edition of ‘The Adventures of Harry Potter’ was entirely gained. The blond helped him a lot since Harry didn’t have the vocabulary to make them as good as he wanted in the beginning.

The note said ‘Thank you Draco and Scorpius, for inspiring and helping this work to see the light.’

He thinks he even saw some misty eyes the first time he showed his friend the book. Not that he would ever mention it, Draco would deny it to the end anyway. Scorpius had no qualms in thanking him for the book though, very happy to have his name mentioned in it.

Gaining confidence after the child's books, writing everything about his years at Hogwarts, he continued with others. Writing about his real-life experiences, he had books like the old Gilderoy Lockhart did, though his were actually personal experiences, not stolen adventures.

As his books were based on many different subjects, he had every kind of fans. Kids, old women, teenagers, politicians, all kinds of people, and all of them stalked him wherever he went. He couldn’t complain as he gained his celebrity status by his own merits this time. In the beginning, it made his job as Auror harder, but not long after he was ascended as Head Auror and got stuck at his office, giving orders more often than not, and able to escape the masses.

His last book, at the age of fifty, was about the Dark Arts. It was a mess at first, until he got the hang of what he really wanted to transmit with it. He ended up relating all of his experiences throughout the years as a subject of the magic and a caster. He aimed to bring some consciousness to the public that just because something is dark it doesn’t equals evil, but also, the dangers of their misuse. Everything, in excess, becomes toxic after all.

###### 2067 – DMLE – Too old for this shit

With the best records in history with the less amount of people lost under his care (yeah, he cheated, sue him), Harry became Head Auror at the age of thirty-eight and Head of the DMLE at fifty-two, giving up his position at sixty for a job with the Unspeakables. After many years of them harassing him, he accepted and joined their forces, having many years of fun working with them.

He enjoyed his job, but the unusual set of gifts he has, made it difficult to hide everything, much less from people like them. For these reasons, he decided to retire at the age of eighty-seven, merely middle-aged by wizards’ standards.

But not everything went smoothly. The new Heads at the DMLE and MLE weren’t as good as him, having problems all the time about one thing or another and disturbing his more than deserved holidays in the most inopportune of times. Once, he had to enjoy the colour rise in the face of the young Auror they sent looking for him as he found Harry enjoying his time with two other witches... and a wizard. Poor kid must’ve been scarred for life, but it wasn’t his fault so…

To his utter and infinite annoyance, he had to do a pact with the DMLE, they left him alone and only called for really important things, or he would disappear for the foreseeable future and ignore every last one of their insufferable calls.

Finally breathing the air of freedom, he set up to enjoy his free time. He visited Hermione, meeting the hubby, the kids, and even grandkids. He travelled once more around the world, visited the pack of weres he made friends with, travelled for a while with his vampire friend, scared a bunch of wizards in Japan who thought Lethi was eating him, and another bunch of them in Peru when he died on them by accident for saving a kid from a rampaging quintaped.

Sometimes he got called to the DMLE for something or another, but never something stupid like that time they couldn’t take a curse out of a broom that keep hitting everyone on the heads when they got inside the DMLE levels.

An unremarkable day, when he was enjoying his time reading a book at Grimmauld’s library as he arrived from travelling a few days before, he received the visit of an ICW member. Why? You guessed it, they had a problem... in Iraq, or maybe Saudi Arabia, or even Kuwait. They didn’t know.

The problem was that Aurors from all of those countries had been injured, killed, kidnapped and/or obliviated. They wanted his help to discover what was happening as there was a trail of animal carcasses leading somewhere, but as the few Aurors who returned were obliviated, they had no idea where.

Intrigued, he took the case and found himself in the lobby of one of Kuwait’s best hotels at the behest of the ICW the next day.

He took a bath to freshen up and left to the local Ministry, to review all the information they had about the case. He took his time with it, going as far as visiting the obliviated Aurors and taking a peek at the blocked memories (thanks to his special abilities he could override the magic of anyone else) to prepare for what was to come.

Many of those obliviated Aurors had nothing of importance hidden beyond the face of the man responsible for the attacks, a few got a glimpse of the place where the man was hiding and that will help him getting entrance in the crazy guy’s lair quicker, but one had such a mess in his head that not even Harry could see what happened as the memory made him feel sick with all the jumbled mess of feelings and incongruence of his brain. No wonder the poor guy was left in a vegetative state.

Three days later, Harry apparated to the coordinates the Aurors gave him, prepared for anything.

The first thing he noticed was the nauseating smell of rot and decay. Casting a charm to be able to see in the dark and a bubblehead for fresh air, he adventured forward. Immediately he noticed that some of the wounds of the animals loitering the sand are actually quite familiar, the way in which tissue has been removed in them makes him recognise some things he read in books a long time ago, so he obviously assumes that the guy is a necromancer.

Following the lead left by the carcasses, Harry finds himself arriving at the oasis in the memories of the obliviated Aurors. He walks to the entrance of the necromancer’s lair with confidence, but also casting a myriad of detecting spells so as not be taken by surprise.

With Lethi wrapped over his shoulders, she is his eyes on the back of his head so he walks forward without much worries. Good thing he brought her along too, her natural coldness cooling his overheated skin these past few days. When they get back, he’ll feed her a favourite of hers as a reward for having to stand so much light and heat lately, a [pogrebin](https://themonsterblogofmonsters.tumblr.com/post/151997540935/pogrebin-a-magical-beast-found-in-russia-the).

He walks down long and dark hallways, casting _homenum revelio_ from time to time but without detecting anything so far. The underground lair is bigger than expected and the few rooms with iron doors he’s seen so far are entirely disgusting, with many dead things inside them, or covered by things that Harry believe he’s better off not knowing.

After a long walk, Harry finally detects noise. Another _homenum revelio_ shows him the silhouette of a living person in a big room a few steps ahead.

Making sure that his concealing spells are well in place, he gets closer to the door and listens with caution. He can discern some words from the other side of the door but most of it is just incoherent grumbling. Suddenly, Lethi hisses in his ear and he turns just in time to shield from a fiery dark red spell.

A barrage of spells soon followed and he defended as best he could in such an enclosed space. A deflected _bombarda_ sent the wall crashing down and he could see, after a spell to clean the air, that in the room he was spying on was a hanging man growling incoherently. Surely mad by torture as his skin, or what was left of it, was hanging off of him.

The woman in front of him attacked without pause, making him sweat for the win like he hadn't in decades.

A moment later, while ducking behind a boulder, the man from the memories joined the woman and between the two they cornered Harry, leaving him without a choice but to use his shadow travel to avoid getting struck by their attacks.

Splinters and dust flew everywhere while many objects transfigured into different things only to be struck by one of them a moment later and destroyed.

He set up a trap, to give him some breathing space and got the woman stuck by the hanging tapestry he passed by a moment away. He led the man then in a wild goose chase and finally got his stunner to hit him, but right then the woman appeared, and seeing the man down, shot an enraged wave of wild magic that sent him sailing through a door and into a room full of shelves with unlevelled potion vials.

He sat on the floor, with his back to the shelf and watched as potion after potion fell all around him. He protected his head when the last one aimed to it and heard the woman scream distantly as she rushed into the room.

“ليس الجرع!”

His ears were buzzing and he started to feel dizzy the moment his head thumped against the wood behind him, pressure on his skull made him grit his teeth and he could see a little of how Lethi tried to protect him from the madwoman trying to kill him.

_**≻You are about to die...≺**_ Death’s warning suddenly sounds inside his head. **_≻Should I take their soul?≺_** He asked, giddy.

“Sure, go for it,” Harry whispers tiredly and done with everything. Whatever Death wants, he thinks done with all that shit, as darkness starts to close in around him.

_**≻What about the creature?≺** _

_What about Lethi?_ Harry thinks inside of his head, unable to utter the words out loud.

_**≻Do you want it with you?≺** _

_Where else would Lethi go?_

_**≻Very well... Stupid potions...≺**_ Death’s soft sigh is the last thing Harry is conscious about, then, nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ليس الجرع!  
> I've frankly forgotten what that was supposed to translate as... but something like 'not the potions!' or some such? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	4. Here we go again...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why does he always get in so much trouble?  
> Seriously, this is getting ridiculous…

###### When? – Where? – What in hell, Death?!

After a damn long time. Really, it was more annoying in the end than anything else. The pain cradling him like a frigging toddler, let him go suddenly.

Harry went from ‘Shit, I’m a dragon’s chew toy!’ to ‘Oh... I can feel my toes again.’ It was, to put it mildly, ANNOYING LIKE A SWARM OF GRINDYLOWS!

Or maybe it was just his old age taking over and making a fuss out of nothing.

He took deep breaths to calm his racing heart and quick breathing, smelling dust and the leftover odour of lemon-scented cleaning products. He sat up with a start, opening his eyes and staring around into the dark room, his breath catching at the sight of shiny white plumage and… OH MY GOD, IS THIS TRUE?! Harry stands from the thin mattress he was lying on a moment ago and walks up to the snowy owl sleeping inside the cage at the corner of the room.

“Hedwig?” His own voice startles him, hoarse as it is, but he doesn’t give a damn about it as he observes the owl waking up and opening just one of her pretty yellow eyes. The owl awakes completely and turns her head questioningly as a sob escapes him, fat tears running down his face against his will. Harry falls to the floor then, crying for the first time in over sixty decades.

* * *

Embarrassingly enough, it takes Harry half an hour to stop his emotional outburst and to get his brain working again. He sits with his back against the wall and looks at Hedwig for a long time without moving a muscle, but in his head, he has a winded and long discussion with Death.

So… he’s gone back in time, he summarises as Death’s presence leaves his mind.

The potions that fell all around him before, where testing concoctions of the crazy madwoman who was attacking him. He grumbles, thumping his head with the wall at his back and sighing.

Harry shivers as Lethi’s cool body wraps over him like a cold winter breeze, and he smiles reassuringly at Hedwig that hoots in worry. He gets down the bed covers and tries to get comfortable, to think and plan.

The potions that crashed all around him, mixed with the one who fell on his head, reacting weirdly and sending his body back in time; from 2094, back to 1994. July eight of nineteen ninety-four, to be exact. A hundred years back.

“What do I do now?” Harry speaks throatily and grimaces throwing and arm over his eyes, his voice was starting to change by his fourteen birthday, setting up by his fifteenth if he remembers correctly. What a drat.

 ** _≻Didn’t you have that recurring wish about making Dumbledore regret ever messing with you?≺_** Death’s voice sounds in his head, over the silence of the room, and a moment later Hedwig makes a ruckus as the entity makes an appearance in the physical plane. _**≻Calm down little one, I’m not here to take your wizard.≺**_ Death moves his bony finger, ignoring Harry’s startled questions, tapping the head of the owl and getting her to calm down.

As Hedwig is fine, Harry lies back down on the bed and hums, thoughts of Dumbledore quickly angering him. “That meddlesome old man…” Harry grumbles while Death sits at the edge of his bed.

 _ **≻Your presence back there in the necromancer's room created a new parallel reality. All those times you imagined getting even with Albus and making his life miserable, ruining his reputation, messing around with Tom, getting the Dursleys into trouble for what they did… You can have that now, Harry.≺**_ Death pats Harry’s messy hair and joins with his Master’s evil laugh. _**≻And I can have fun for a second time when they die here...≺**_

Death vanishes and a thoughtful Harry falls asleep a moment later with a wide smile on his face.

* * *

After an uncomfortable sleep, Harry wakes up the next day in a terrible mood. But, as he gets reacquainted with his family over breakfast, he gets off the house happier than he remembers ever being while in Privet Drive. Meanwhile, the scared Dursley family is left alone to create an excuse for Vernon and how the man broke his arm in three different places, Petunia has to clean and get a new stove as the one in the house has been turned into useless scraps of charred metal, and Dudley eats happily the fallen food while enjoying his new pig form.

With a pleased smile, Harry raises his wand and calls for the Night Bus, a few blocks away from the house and gossiping neighbours. He pays for a ride to the Leaky Cauldron and, with more wandless magic, changes his clothes and hair so he’s not as easily recognisable.

Some hours later, he exits Gringotts with a new card in his pocket — very much like the muggle’s credit cards — and wanders off ready to buy his things.

First and foremost, he visits a clothes store and gets himself a new wardrobe, burning the second-hand clothes from Dudley afterwards. Now, ready to face the world, he changes his appearance to blue eyes and dirty blond hair, to walk into Knockturn Alley without calling for attention.

As an Auror, he got a lot of training in wandless magic and became able to do most of Hogwarts’ taught spells without a wand — and some more — but some spells that required a lot of magic and more concentration to cast like the Patronus charm and the like were still out of his league. After the incident where he died the first time though, his bond with Death settled and not only did his magic levels shot up to the clouds, his control and ability to cast absolutely _anything_ wandlessly too.

And a good thing too, otherwise he would be unable to do the things he plans to, as his old and trusty holly wand is still under the ministry’s spell as he’s supposed to be underage, anything he’d cast with it would be then taken note of on the scroll bespelled to take notice of any underage children casting magic without permission.

Once in Knockturn, he buys a new trunk with multiple compartments like Moody’s. It takes him a while to find the place as it is deep into the dark alley, but when he does, he buys it and quickly leaves. Good thing he has a good memory and remembered when the ex-Auror mentioned where he bought it, otherwise he’d be stuck with the common ones with a measly extended space.

Already knowing what books he’ll need for the school year, Harry buys everything and gets it into his trunk. Now settled for the things he’ll need for school, he gets a room at the Leaky after having dinner and starts doing the summer assignments.

A few days later, and his summer homework done, he attends to his date with the Mungo’s healer that will take care of his eyes healing. He makes the man sign a contract, of course. And like this, Harry Potter comes out of the room without glasses once more.

He hopes that he doesn’t have to go through it again, the procedure to heal his eyes is really annoying as he has to recline on a chair after the healer petrifies him and puts a potion on his eyes that itch like crazy, until ten minutes later when they are completely fixed. Those ten minutes are the worst torture ever!

###### 1994, July 15th – Nurmengard Castle – Tea with a Dark Lord

Apparating outside of the old castle of Nurmengard, Harry shivers as the sudden cold hits his face. The dark-grey stone castle looks foreboding in the distance and Harry caught sight of the lots and _lots_ of Aurors patrolling the place.

“Where is he?” He whispered softly and a big cloud of warm air came out of his mouth.

 ** _≻The highest tower...≺_** Death’s voice whispered in his ear.

Harry looks up, and in the distance, covered by puffy clouds, he can distinguish said tower. Now, how to reach it?

He looks down at his hands and cocking his head, he gets an idea.

“I’m in my younger body, but I know the theory of it, so I can use my animagus transformation, right?”

**_≻You can, but you’re going to have a different one...≺_ **

“How different?”

_**≻Since you got your animagus form before our bond was completely formed the first time around, the form you’ll change into now will reflect our connection.≺** _

“Do you know which form I will take? Will I still be able to fly?”

_**≻A[Dark Phoenix](https://themonsterblogofmonsters.tumblr.com/post/112085928979/frost-phoenix-more-accurately-called-the-dark)...≺** _

Scowling, Harry facepalms and whines, “Why?” to which Death merely laughs in his head.

The first Dark Phoenix will only come into existence in a decade, so of course he’s a little intrigued, but shrugging he transforms and takes a minute to get acquainted with his new animal form.

His previous form, the Emberlark, was a cousin of the Russian phoenix Zhar-Ptitsa so, in a way, the feeling it’s not so different as all of them are Firebirds but at the same time it entirely is. The only thing his forms share in common physically is that they are both birds, but that’s it. Where Emberlarks are warm and beings of fire, his Dark Phoenix form is cold — even its fire is — because of the influence of the Dementor that influenced its creation. So much so, that he doesn’t notice the cold from the snowstorm around him anymore since he transformed.

Also, where Emberlarks are the size of a chicken, a Dark Phoenix is as big as an Andean Condor. Harry isn’t an expert, but he likes his animals and even had the special opportunity to study the Dark Phoenix for two weeks while he worked as an Unspeakable, so he knows his new form quite well.

_Can I flame, Death?_

_**≻Yes, but you’re still limited and can’t go to places you’ve never been before, or the other half of the planet. You can travel longer distances though, as the taxing that stops others doesn’t affect you. Where a normal Phoenix would flame three times to cross Russia from Europe to America and has to rest for a day without using any magic afterwards, the same doesn’t apply to you. You’ll need to flame maybe two times and your magic is as limitless as mine.≺** _

As Death explained this to Harry, the Dark Phoenix jumped down the snowy peak to hide in the forest nearby. If anyone saw it, they would have laughed at the funny sight of such a big bird jumping around like its smaller cousins.

Once under the cover of the trees, Harry extends his wings and tries to fly. It’s highly uncomfortable at first as the wings are bigger and sturdier than he’s used to, but after a few minutes of trial and error, he gets the hang of it. The big black bird hikes high in the sky, hiding his form with the clouds, only going back down once the highest tower is in sight.

He rushes down from the sky, wings clamped tightly against his big body that open only once his target is in front of him. He hovers three seconds before the window and they’re enough to flame inside the dark dank room. Gellert looks at him with surprise and wonder, Harry looks back with curiosity and disgust because the smell isn’t the best inside there. Outside, the Aurors rush as the blaring alarm sounds loudly all over the castle.

Harry turns, offering his right-wing to Gellert who takes hold of it without a second thought.

They disappear in an explosion of black cold flames that freezes the entire room, reappearing in the sandy desert of Argelia without any people in a vast distance nearby, a precautionary measure in case the man attacks him.

As Gellert lands not so softly in the sand and releases his wing, Harry turns back to his human form and the ex-Dark Lord laughs like a maniac to the open sky above.

The man laughs and laughs while Harry transfigures sand into a big parasol with a pair of comfy sun chairs underneath, calling for Dobby to get them some iced fruity cocktails.

Harry, drink in hand, sits and waits. Moments later, Gellert follows suit. They talk, duel, talk some more, and sit to plan.

In the end, Gellert likes Harry and accepts his offer of freedom.

They laugh while scheming against Dumbledore, drinking until they’re blackout drunk.

... and in a castle in Scotland, Dumbledore shivers, feeling dread sit in his gut for some unknown reason.

* * *

Thanks to the involvement of Death, Harry can cast massive obliviations to the Aurors stationed at Nurmengard, to have them believe that nothing is wrong and Gellert still resides in the prison. Putting up spells at the door and the window to make everyone seeing thru them believe that he’s just sitting pitifully like the first time Harry saw him. All the while, the real Gellert settles at Potter manor and recovers from years of malnutrition and old-age.

After their talk during their first meeting at the dunes of Argelia, they arrived at an agreement. Harry wants to see Albus loss his composure and what better manner than using him, Albus’ old lover, to appear here and there and get him paranoid. Gellert has no problem with it seeing as he’s angry that Albus left him to rot in his own damn castle for the past fifty years; he’s repented for the terrible actions he’s committed, seeing the error of his ways, but that doesn’t mean that he’s forgiven Albus for his terrible mistreatment during their meetings since he’s become a permanent fixture to Nurmengard’s highest security prison cell.

Gellert always believed that Albus was angry at him for the death of Ariana, and when Harry explained Dumbledore’s real motives for his callousness, Gellert lost the last bits of affection he held for Albus. To think that Albus was just as bad as he used to be... Even worse, since Albus is still causing strife all over England all these years later. It made Gellert feel even more secure in his own view of things. He made mistakes, and he was strong enough to admit it, but he was also able to repent and _see_ the wrong of his actions.

That Albus is making terrible decisions and committing hideous crimes, while having the hypocrisy of visiting Gellert every new year to tell him about his advances in bettering the world and comparing their lives to make him feel bad for his past life-choices made him furious. As if making sure that children get abused for his nefarious purposes, but keeping them alive, is in any way better than killing children just to avoid leaving them orphaned.

Gellert committed mistakes and he recognises them, but Albus keeps doing so and is blissfully blind to his own faults. He’ll gladly help Harry after the kid gave him a second chance.

That's not to say that he’s suddenly become an embodiment of goodwill. Gellert has been and will always be a pragmatic man and has a good enough sense of humour as to work well alongside Harry who has a somewhat jokester background attitude. Also, discovering that Harry’s the Master of Death is also interesting — and quite frightening — so he has nothing to worry about as Harry is as multifaceted as Gellert himself, their personalities working very well alongside each other. So long as Gellert behaves...

They’re as good, just as they’re bad.

It’s quite refreshing in a sense.

And the company is also welcomed, even if he had his doubts when he first got a glimpse of the teenager who rescued him. Fifty years to yourself are not something that Gellert would recommend to anyone, it can be quite maddening. So, it’s nice to have someone to talk to that is almost as old as he is, has vast and interesting experiences or knowledge to share during conversations, and shares his dislike of Albus to boot.

Gellert enjoys the following month in the company of Harry, becoming surprisingly lonely when he leaves in the middle of August. Who would have thought that he could find a friend after all this time and all his mistakes? Certainly not Gellert. But they’ll see each other soon enough and then things will get interesting again…

###### 1994, August 22nd – Quidditch-World-Cup Site – Shaking worlds

Since Harry got a letter from Ron the previous week, he remembered to return to the Dursleys just in time. The month that Gellert spent with him at Potter manor went by in a flash. It was surprising how well the two of them worked together.

That Friday he had to leave though, and early in the morning, maybe the only day until then that Ron woke up early during the summer, the Weasleys knocked at N°4 and took him away, after Dumbledore _gave_ _them permission_ to do so. Ugh!

Going from an independent man of a hundred and thirteen years old, who did what he wanted, when he wanted, to the teenager under Dumbles complete control again sucks.

He got to spend only three days until then with Ron and he was already sick of the brat. He spent more time behind closed doors with the twins than Ron, but still, the guy didn’t know when to stop nagging him, good thing the twins know how to deal with their brother’s stupidity better than him or Ron would have gotten _lost_ before he got to see the quidditch match in a few nights.

This time around though, Harry isn’t going to go into the Weasley’s tent and only spend time with them. It’s the quidditch World Cup and he’s going to enjoy it as he should have the first time and get his newly teenaged body its first alcohol intoxication! Err, second? He got drunk with Gellert that first day... he almost forgot.

After walking along with the others to the tent, Harry got out with the twins and drunk his first glass of firewhiskey with them, surprising the gingers with his lack of a fight against the idea.

His first time around Harry was a wimp and he knew it; he thinks with a sigh.

Afterwards, Harry paid for a bottle of firewhiskey, took another sip not wanting to get hammered so early in the evening and left, inviting everyone to drink from it and receiving many cheers as he left.

With instructions not to attack anyone and protect him if he fell unconscious somewhere random, Lethi hung from his shoulders and happily ate the magicka from any passer-by that walked too close to them by spreading little tendrils of her black shimmering body.

It wasn’t until late in the night that Harry walked into the Weasley’s tent, surprising the two eldest by sitting beside them and drinking a glass-full of firewhiskey that he took from Charlie’s hand, saying something cheeky that he doesn’t remember at all and proceeded to fall all over the table completely drunk and unconscious.

The next day he regretted it for a few minutes as he woke up, but after drinking a hangover potion and showering, he walked into the kitchen smiling and without any trace of the previous night's debauchery.

Molly didn’t travel with them so, fortunately, nobody was there to smother him. Hermione showed her concern by asking where he went, and a simple explanation about getting to know foreign people as he never met someone from another country, thus mentioning the solitary confinement the Dursley always put him under, got her to look at him pityingly for a moment and leave him alone.

Just like the previous day, the twins disappeared and he followed. As it was early, he enjoyed his friends’ company and all three of them walked around the tents trying the foreign food, drinks and sweets. As the twins left to take care of ‘business’, Harry walked away to meet his new friend, who was waiting for him just where he told him.

Thanks to some magic that Death never bothered to teach Harry before, Gellert now looks like his seventeen years old self; his eyes are no longer dichromatic and he walks away from the apparition point as Harry arrives nearby. They share a devious smile and walk away, getting lost in the crowd and having some fun, ready to start the plan to mess with Dumbledore until he chokes on his lemon drops.

They spend the day messing around, Harry teaching him about the various things he’s missed over the years, drinking and just enjoying themselves.

The third day of this routine of Harry going by himself, Ron and Hermione get angry as he isn’t spending time with them, so he has to promise to take them along. So, after breakfast the three of them, along with the twins, go out and meet ‘Grendel’ at the apparition point. Ron immediately shoots him a jealous glare and Hermione starts talking about heavy magical theory with Harry’s new friend.

By the end of the day it’s obvious that Ron can’t stand him and Hermione has developed a little crush on the wizard. Before Gellert apparates away, he and Harry share a wicked grin. It’s so funny messing with his friends, but mostly just Ron.

The next day goes by almost the same way, except Ron’s jealousy is becoming more obvious, to the point that Hermione gets angry and Harry glares openly at Ron by nightfall.

Saturday morning, as promised, Grendel and his ‘sister’ Gwen joins the Weasley’s for breakfast.

Gwen — Death in disguise, because they want to have some fun too — shares Grendel’s light-blond hair and blue eyes but is clearly a little older as she’s passing as a twenty years old young woman. She has a smaller nose and a heart-shaped head, wears obvious muggle clothes that hug her curves and makes the older Weasley’s drool, her angelic features are accentuated by a soft and girlish pink make-up around her eyes and lips that hide Death’s true dangerous nature and sports a deceivingly nice smile that gives Harry the creeps.

As it is the day of the game, the entire family plus Hermione, Harry, Grendel, and Gwen spend the day together until the match is meant to start. And as Mr Weasley’s always been a nice man, he invited them to join them at their box since there is going to be enough space. Percy told him that Crouch is sick the day before, when they met by chance at one of the food stalls.

That is how, when they got to the Ministry’s box, both blond ‘siblings’ accompanied them.

The Ministry was all charm and smiles when Harry introduced them as his friends, to him and the Bulgarian Minister, up to the moment when they gave their entire names and grasped his hand.

“A pleasure to meet you Minister Fudge and Minister Oblansk,” Gwen, as the oldest sibling, introduced them flawlessly in their own language, to each Minister. “I’m Gwen Gehenna Grindelwald and this is my little brother,” Gwen stepped aside as Fudge keep smiling robotically after hearing her entire name and Oblansk looked surprised, many gasps coming from Harry’s back at the same time.

Grendel took the man’s offered hands next and shook them firmly, “Grendel Gyorgy Grindelwald, a pleasure Minister Fudge. Minister Oblansk.”

Awkwardly, Fudge laughed and proceed to introduced Oblansk to the Malfoys as they arrived into the box.

“That was fun,” Grendel whispered at Harry as he walked beside him and sat next to Hermione, who had a book in her hands and didn’t catch any of the drama that just took place.

Gwen though winked at Harry and sat between the two oldest Weasley brothers, who tried to act as normal as possible and hit Ronald for acting like a git and calling her a dark witch, which amused Death.

Harry, ignoring Ron’s dejected expression and Mr Weasley’s verbal spar with Lucius Malfoy, sat to Hermione’s free side to join with hers and Gellert’s conversation, when he could, as he wasn’t supposed to know about some things.

Everyone got up when the Minister, finally, decided to start the game. Ron made a fool out of himself when the mascots (the veelas) came out and danced, almost throwing himself down the box if not for the twins who arrived without notice as they got lost on their way up to their private box.

Hermione obviously got bored after ten minutes and sat back down, reading her book.

During the first boring period of the match, when no one scored or did anything of importance, Harry caught Hermione and Gellert talking about ‘his school’, Durmstrang. Ludo took away his attention when he started to relate with emotion about Ireland's movements once more, catching sight of them just in time to see the chaser steal the quaffle from his Bulgarian counterpart by using the Speelman Steal movement.

The second time he got distracted, he hard Ginny asking about his name, politely, unlike Ron. Getting the story of how Gwen and Grendel became wards of their grandmother at a young age after their father, a believer of their grandfather’s Gellert’s _ridiculous_ agenda, got thrown into prison for inciting a rebellion with a group of dangerous people that used violence and illegal magic. And got distracted again when Krum made the first dive in chase of the snitch.

The third time that boredom overtook him, the twins where talking with Gwen and getting ideas from her about new pranks, getting some sob story about her having to use some of those same ideas to fend off offensive people who called her Grindelwald’s cursed spawn or something like that. Harry smiled, imagining Dumbledore’s reaction when he got wind of the twins retelling of this moment. Krum’s Wronski Feint, as amazing the second time as the first, distracted him then.

The next time, it is Arthur the one speaking to one of the Grindelwald siblings and getting another sob story. Grandma raised them since Gwen was four and Grendel three, blah blah blah, she died two years ago and Gwen was left in charge of looking after her little brother, blah blah blah, how difficult life is since their last name is hated by a lot of people when they don’t really know them, etc, etc.

Harry already can see Dumbledore’s reaction to hearing their invented stories, after one of the Weasley’s shares them, and losing the twinkle right off of his eyes!

* * *

LoL I forgot to clear some things...

This is [Gellert](https://todoharrypotter.es/image/todoharrypotter.es/23-29.jpg-1542384672.jpg/1110/470), of course. The older version is what first Harry encounters in the story, when he bails him out of imprisonment.

Then we have Dove Cameron appearing as [Gwen](https://aws.glamour.mx/prod/designs/v1/assets/1170x614/212345.jpg), the sister, who's also Death wanting to relax and play around with the mortals.

And [here](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/65/c9/7c/65c97c3dada122e782c224b63f024287.jpg), a little extra when everyone is having fun after the match. Imagine Dumbledore's reaction at seeing that cute young face appearing amongst his lovely light family, OMG!


	5. Triwizard?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Triwizard Tournament is about to start and Harry can’t wait to have some fun.  
> But, unlike last time, he’ll enjoy toying with the people who wants to mess with him.

###### 1994, October 31st – Hogwarts – This is Halloween!

After the celebration when Ireland won the Quidditch World Cup and the Grindelwald siblings joined the festivities with the Weasley family, they became good friends with some of them. The festivities got interrupted by the Death Eaters, but Ginny, the twins and, shockingly, Charlie's letters made it to Potter manor over the following months, directed equally to Grendel or Gwen. Harry got a laugh the first time Death received a letter from Ginny about some girl’s stuff, as they were having some tea in the RoR and he could feel Death’s shock through their bond.

Also, during that first week, Harry became more and more tired of Ron’s attitude. How could he be so dense the first time around to never noticed the ginger’s disgusting attitude is anyone's wonder. As a result, Harry spent less and less time with his supposed best mate and more getting to know people from other houses that he never put too much emphasis on before, growing an earlier friendship with Neville and Luna who he only got to know better until late in his fifth year during the first go around. It surprised Harry how easy Hermione took it though, as he believed that she would worry more about Ronald since until then their group of friends consisted mostly of the three of them and it was a close and tight-knitted friendship. But maybe only from his point of view, as she took it better than expected.

Ron became more and more jealous, Harry noticed. Throwing envious glances to the people that got closer to Harry as they noticed him opening more to other people. Ginny too, acted a little odd, pursing her lips every time Harry returned some flirting to the girls and frowning when he started returning it to some boys too. It is weird being in the receiving end of Ginny’s attention once more, but she is her young and infatuated self once more and he can hardly blame it on the girl since he now knows it’s all Molly’s brainwashing. He’ll have to start casting detection spells on all of his food as has an idea of Molly’s reaction to the news of Harry paying attention to anyone that isn’t her daughter, or he’ll end up magically besotted with Ginny again. He doesn’t want to experience another blackout only to wake up with a naked Ginny and without recollection of the previous night.

The day the other schools’ delegations were due to arrive, Hermione, Neville, Ron, Luna and Harry stood together to one side of the courtyard, with the rest of Hogwarts as they waited for the arriving delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, Harry took a look around the many groups of friends standing together. He doesn’t understand how he never noticed before but people appear to befriend more students from different houses than he ever bothered to realize. For example, MacDougal who is a Ravenclaw talked animatedly to a group of Slytherins and one of them was none other than Pansy Parkinson, some older Hufflepuff that he doesn’t know talked with a Gryffindor and held a Slytherin by the arm, and a group of two ravens and two puffs discussed something while the weird sight of a snake and a gryff sneaking furtive glances of each other every other minute took the cap out of all of them. Was he that naive before?

Whispering started spreading and the carriage of the Beauxbatons delegation appeared far in the horizon, landing in the middle of the courtyard and regaling them with the sight of blue-clad students and Madame Maxime doubling in height over Albus when he greeted her. The huge horses were a sight to behold still, Hagrid certainly looked ecstatic, or maybe it was the Headmistress? Then, the ship with the Durmstrang delegation came out of the Black Lake, causing more gasps to run around for their showmanship. Igor Karkaroff was as gaunt and disturbing as Harry remembered, he didn’t understand how Dumbledore could act so pleased to see the Death Eater, but then again, he supposed he had lots of experience with Snape anyway.

The cake of the event was when Ginny, Hermione, the Twins and him walked near them in that moment, in plain sight of everyone, hugging a blond from the group of visitors. It wasn’t Harry’s imagination when Albus’ facade faltered and his smile suddenly disappeared. Of course, he didn’t pay the old coot any mind and walked along with Grendel to Hogwarts.

And now here they are, sitting at the tables during the Halloween feast. Grendel sits with the rest of Durmstrang at the Slytherin table while Harry talks with Neville and Hermione to each side of him. They wait for a long while, Dumbledore introduces Bagman and Crouch, the chalice, and the fun part starts as they wait for the champions to be selected.

Harry smiles openly and shows himself exited. He made an effort to talk with a lot of people and get his piece out, there are going to be idiots who will believe he put his name into the goblet still, he imagines, but then that will only demonstrate that they aren’t worth his time if they show to be that dense. He knows that Ron is going to be one of them, he’s sure of it.

Just like he expected, instead of Victor, the chosen was Grendel. How can a school student compete against the knowledge and power of an ex-Dark Lord? There is no buts or ifs about it. As they didn’t mess with Beauxbatons, Fleur was next and finally Hogwarts.

Harry almost fell over when Fred’s name was spoken out loud!

The previous day, when the twins tried to cheat the goblet with their ageing potions, Harry gave them a few ideas in front of the whole school and they tried them. Making a paper plane, floating a little ball of paper with their name, asking an older student to put their name for them; it wasn’t really necessary for the person to cross the age line for themselves if they were creative enough. A lot of people tried his ideas and he said that he didn’t need more unwanted fame or even more money than he has so he wouldn’t put his own name when they asked him, but still others tried and the goblet didn’t cause them any harm, apparently it worked.

Fred rushed up to Dumbledore with a big smile and practically skipping the rest of the hall and into the back room.

A confused and disgruntled Dumbledore took a moment to right himself and was about to give them another rant when the moment Harry was waiting for interrupted the man. The goblet’s fire grew once again, turning a furious red and spitting sparkles until a piece of paper came out.

“Harry Potter…” Dumbledore said softly at first, acting surprised and worried. “Harry Potter!” He called again, gravely.

Harry put up his shocked expression and walked up to Dumbledore with halting moves.

“Sir?” Harry asked, now in front of the man, with a fearful and wobbly voice. Dumbledore looked down at him with eyes full of sorrow and Harry had to fight the urge to slap the man. “I didn’t put my name…”

“Go on Harry.” Dumbles cuts him short and made Harry even angrier.

He shocked his head, stepping away from the man’s hand that tried to push him in the direction of the room with the other champions.

Fast, Harry raised his hand with his wand pointing to the ceiling and talked with a firm and clear voice. “I swear on my magic that I didn’t put my name on the goblet of fire, nor did I ask anyone else to do it or cheat to get into the tournament. So mote it be!” Magic flared around him with sparks and his hair waved with his power, the entire hall was completely silent. “Lumos!” He called next and many shielded their faces from the bright light that came out of the tip of his wand until he stopped the magic. “I didn’t want to participate in this ridiculously dangerous thing that should still be forbidden,” he said harshly and with some theatrical tears of emotion filling his eyes. “I have more money in my family’s vaults that I could ever use and fame because some crazy git with delusions of grandeur failed to kill me like he did my parents, but I don’t have a death wish as to put my name in that stupid chalice!” And saying his piece, her turned and walked away with angry steps, entering the room and sitting with a huff in one of the available chairs.

“What is it?” Fleur asked noticing him first, her accent was heavy and it was difficult to understand some of her words, “Do they want us back in the hall?”

“Harrykins?” asked Fred with shock.

“Harry?” Grendel walked up to him and sat on the couch to his right.

Harry huffed and sprawled against the chair, looking at the ceiling without showing much more emotions, “Someone is trying to kill me. Again.”

The silence was broken as Dumbledore, Maxime, Karkaroff, Bagman and Crouch walked briskly inside the room. For some reason Snape, McGonagall and Moody were there too.

While the adults discussed the recent events and some of them delivered icy glares at Harry, Fleur said her line and Harry felt as angry about the ‘little boy’ exclamation as the first time. He’ll show her his _little_ boy.

“You’re going to be alright mate,” Fred told him patting his shoulder in consolation. “If you can take on Quirrelmort, a thousand years old Basilisk and a hundred Dementors then this is going to be nothing in comparison. Now I’m more worried about myself than you, actually. What chance do I have? I feel cheated! I’ll have some words with whoever put you in the middle of this mess.”

The adult’s discussion cut short at that and many of them were left sputtering after hearing about some of Harry exploits during his past three years.

“Thanks, Fred,” Harry smiled warmly at him, “You’re the best.”

“Well,” Bagman cut into the moment, “Now that we are settled…”

“There’s nothing settled! Where in the rules says that the hosting school can have two champions? This is an outrage!” Karkaroff exclaimed indignantly and crossed his arms, glaring holes into Dumbles skull as the man seems unflappable.

“It is most unjust!” Maxime agreed with a huff, showing her displeasure by straightening to her full height and making everyone else feel as tiny as a goblin, looking down at everyone with pursed lips.

Ignoring the ongoing discussion, Grendel stood up and asked a stony-faced Dumbledore for Harry’s paper and the headmaster gave him the piece of parchment with a stiff hand. While Grendel cast many a spell to the little thing, Harry wondered what he was doing, this wasn’t part of their plan.

“Aha!” Grendel exclaimed, showing the parchment to Harry and Fred, “Whoever wrote that,” he said, showing the name of another school under Harry’s written name, “Is the culprit of this.”

“Ma-ju-tokoro? What is that?” Fred asked confused.

Crouch opened his eyes with worry and Bagman gasped, “That isn’t good, not them!”

“Mahoutokoro,” Grendel corrected with a surprisingly fluent accent, “Is the school of magic from Japan and if there is one thing Japanese people hate is bringing dishonour to their name in any way. They’re going to be mighty pissed about this,” he told them waving the parchment in the air.

The three headmasters/mistress huffed in annoyance, they knew of the school and hated the idea of dealing with them. If they could agree in anything, it was the fact that Japan had more history than all of them put together so they couldn’t and wouldn’t treat them like they did many others, waving their old and prestigious school names around to get their ways. Hogwarts was the oldest of the three schools present, but Mahoutokoro in comparison was ancient!

* * *

With no one wanting to deal with the Japanese, they proceeded to ignore Grendel’s discovery and Harry’s forced participation in the tournament. Bagman and Crouch told everyone that the rules clearly said that once chosen by the goblet there was no turning back, declaring like this the words that would help Harry become an adult in the eyes of the Ministry once more. If only he knew about it during his first-time doing things, everything would have been easier.

Harry wasn’t surprised when he went to the common room that night and received lots of suspicious glances that angered Fred on his behalf. He shrugged it off and decided to go to sleep.

As expected, Ron gave him the cold shoulder from then on.

Harry took everything in stride and continued with his life like nothing happened, ignoring the snark and glares thrown at him. Grendel and Fred made their support obvious by showing everywhere with Harry and spending a lot of time studying together. Grendel, as the oldest, taught them lots of spells and Harry used him as an excuse for his newfound interest in studying. It pleased Hermione to no end to see him with books at hand more often than not lately and Ron keep glaring at him with jealousy and anger.

Two weeks passed by in this manner and by Monday morning, during breakfast, Fred sat in front of Harry and Grendel with a sombre mood that was rarely, if ever, seen on one of the twins.

“Guys, we need to talk…” Fred said in a whisper, looking pale and glaring down at his plate.

Harry and Grendel shared a look and got up as one. “Come on Gred, Forge, I want to show you guys something,” Harry said with a mischievous smile and walked out of the great hall. They followed in silence, Fred still pale and frowning. Once on the seventh floor, in front of Barnabas the Barmy, Harry paced three times and got surprised gasps as a door appeared out of nowhere. Smiling, he let the twins get in first, blinking at Gellert who was still staring and getting him out of his shock.

“This school is crazy,” Gellert laughed and followed Harry inside.

“Is this the forbidden section of the library?” One twin squeaked from the right.

“Oi! This is a professional duelling platform, with the protective wards scheme around it and everything!” Another twin shouted from the left.

“And a protected potions lab behind this door, ready to be used,” Gellert commented after taking a peek behind the closed door.

The three of them turned to Harry to ask questions and he only smiled, “Welcome to the Room of Requirement!” Harry said opening his arms and laughing, “Take a seat.”

“Where?” Fred asked looking around and a moment later jumped into his twin’s arms as a couch appeared suddenly behind him in the middle of the room.

“Bloody hell!” The exclaimed together.

A moment later, the walls disappeared and they were standing in an open plain, soft green grass at their feet, puffy white clouds at their heads, the library and the duelling platform still to either side and the doors at their front and back the only things in view beyond grass and a bright blue sky.

“Nice,” Harry said looking at Gellert.

“I’m literally itching to get my hands on a book that explains the magic behind this room. It’s extraordinaire,” he answers with wonder.

“Later,” Harry waves his hand and sits on a comfy chair, prompting the others to follow suit. “So, Fred…”

“DRAGONS!” Fred startles them with his sudden shout, “The first task are bloody dragons. I don’t know what is wrong with these people but last night Charlie and I met, because he sent me a letter a few days back answering mine where I told him about me being a champion you know... So, we met last night as he wanted to show me something and that something was the bloody damn dragons that he and some other dragon-tamers are taking care of in the middle of a clearing in the forbidden forest and we’re meant to fight them or something, he isn’t sure.”

Harry, being the nice bloke he is, asked for a goblet and filled it with water, letting Fred get a breath in after he finished ranting.

“Four dragons then,” Grendel said calmly, putting a considering hand under his chin. “I don’t believe we’ll have to fight them. During previous tournaments, the favoured option was taking something from them or catching the creature. As usual, the first task this time is also about a creature.”

“Not just that,” says Harry looking at Gellert with a devious smile. He hid the details about the tournament to be able to see how he reacted at the moment of the revelation, after being chosen as a champion. “They’re nesting mothers,” Harry said with a wide smile and raising a finger, making a shooting motion at him.

Gellert just looked back with a perplexed expression. The twins, likewise, stared blankly at Harry.

“They have taken complete leave of their sanity…” Gellert says in a monotone.

“Yep,” Harry agrees. “So, a Chinese Fireball, a Common Welsh Green, a Hungarian Horntail, and a Sweedish Short-Snout,” he mentions while raising a finger as he added another name. “Pity there’s none of the Asian breeds that understand parsel, it would be funny to see everyone’s faces when I just up and talked to it.” He snickered at his own comment and Gellert responded with an eye-roll to his antics.

“If I get the Hungarian Horntail mum’s gonna flip,” Fred slumps in his seat with a dramatic arm over his forehead.

“Are you all barmy?!” George shouts, standing and pacing around the room impatiently. “You’ll have to go blindly against a nesting dragon and do who knows what!”

“Ah, I always knew you were the more sensible twin out of the two of you, Forge,” Harry says amused.

“Harry!” George growls angrily, “You can get hurt. FRED can get hurt!”

“Oi! Have same faith on your better-looking twin!”

The twins proceed to fight, throwing around arguments, in an uncommon show of discord for once.

“Wanna duel?” Harry asks and Gellert gets up to follow.


	6. Golden Eggs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With hindsight, everything is easier.  
> It also helps he’s over a hundred years old and practically immortal.  
> Facing a dragon? Asking a girl out? Pff, piece of cake!

###### 1994, November 21st – Hogwarts – Interviews and Dragons

Harry gets dragged out of potions by Collin once more and directed to the room where the weighing of the wands will take place. Doing it seems to be ridiculous to him, what a nonsense. If he wants to cheat and change wands for some reason between now and the day of the task he can do so, there is nothing impeding him, so what is the meaning of this waste of time he has no idea.

Walking into the room, everyone is there already, waiting. Harry spaces off, thinking of other things while Bagman drones on and on about the tournament, and then Ollivanders starts investigating the wands one by one. Fleur’s is rosewood and veela hair, Fred’s wand is walnut and dragon heartstring, Grendel’s is a pine one with [chameleon gecko’s](https://themonsterblogofmonsters.tumblr.com/post/170322216751/chameleon-gecko-a-curious-magical-gecko-these) bones, and lastly Harry with his holly and Fawkes’ tail feather. As he said, boring and pointless.

That is, until Rita tried to get some time along with him into the cupboard. He didn’t have a problem going into cupboards with pretty women, giving interviews on the other hand… that’s no fun. Harry surprised himself when he started flirting with Rita, more so when she answered in kind. To think Rita likes them young, what a surprise! And like this, his first interview with her ended up being more...interesting and fun than previously expected.

And four days later, they are ready to start the first task.

Hermione is a ball of nerves, George follows after her in an unusual display of seriousness and worry, while three out of four of the champions chill and get some tea and biscuits. Fleur, sitting behind them at the Ravenclaw table, glances at them as they laugh and frowns.

After breakfast, the champions walk to their tent. They wait for half an hour while the crowd settles and Bagman makes an appearance, flaunting the black bag and giving them their instructions.

Fleur, first once more, got the number three, the Chinese firebolt. Next, Grendel grabbed hold of the bag and brought out the Welsh green. Fred took out the Hungarian horntail with a shocked expression, leaving Harry with the last one, the Swedish short-snout.

“Aw man, mum’s gonna hide me after this!” Fred grunted and sat, playing with his little dragon copy and Harry laughed, sitting next to the ginger.

“Well that’s it,” Bagman says, fidgeting and blinking owlishly at their mostly (Fleur look sickly pale) relaxed reaction. “I’ll leave you to it them, be ready for the horn call Mr Potter,” he coughed and left the tent at Harry’s nod.

“Do you think I’ll be able to keep it?” Harry asks Grendel, raising one hand where the little Swedish dragon hangs upside-down.

“I gather the spell will break in a few hours. It’ll be a surprise if they got someone competent or powerful enough to enchant them and make it last longer than three hours at most,” Grendel sneers. “Some things never change…”

“Oh, you don’t need to tell _me_ that. I know it better than most.”

“Worked for them, did you?” Grendel asks in German.

“Yeah, for - like seventy years or so. Auror, head MLE, head DMLE, Unspeakable,” Harry answers back flawlessly and snorts.

Grendel whistles, “Wow, Saint Potter…” he says with a laugh, “Or at least the patience of one.”

Harry snorts again and shoves his shoulder playfully, “Shut up.”

“Since when do you speak that language, Harry?” Fred asks, looking at Harry with surprise.

He opens his mouth to answer, but the blare of the horn saves him, “Sorry, later Gred.” He rushes to the opening of the tent and takes a deep breath, “Wish me luck!” He yells with a final look back at them and gets out.

The crowd yells as he walks out, deafening him. Bagman starts commenting and Harry focuses on the dragon, ignoring any other noise. The Swedish Short-Snout dragon is a beautiful breed that commonly has silver-blue scales; this one is no exception. From the under-jaw, all along the belly and along the downside of the long tail the dragon has magnificent silver scales that shine a little under the sunlight. The rest of the dragon is covered by scales of deep blue that almost looks black. Her eyes are blue too, but this time a bright poisonous blue. She’s splendid. Harry loves animals and if it weren’t for the dangers of having one, he would get himself a dragon. Norberta was certainly a cute little thing.

First he cast a silencing spell over him so his footsteps don’t make noise, followed by a charm to hide his smell, then he transfigures three stones into snakes and uses _engorgio_ to make them as thick as a piglet and over ten meters long, giving them directions to distract the dragon, and finally he points the wand at himself once more and cast a strong _disillusion charm_. The snakes do their work masterfully, distracting the dragon but keeping their distance and its attention away from Harry. He walks up to the nest, careful not to call for unwanted attention or getting squished by the wyvern. Once besides the eggs, he grabs it and covers it with a transfigured sheet so the shine of the golden egg doesn’t reveal him. Once by the exit door, where dragon handlers wait gobsmacked for him, he breaks the spells and bows to the public as the dragon roars agitated.

He walks into the tent were Madam Pomfrey checks him, releasing him a moment later as he has no injuries. Meanwhile, there is a fifteen minutes recess while they get the dragon in position for the next champion and he gets a drink from a vendor as he walks up the grades, sitting beside Hermione and getting squished by a tight hug.

“Mione you’re more harmful that the dragon…” he breaths once more when she releases him and laughs as she smacks his arm.

“I can’t believe you! That was so dangerous and you even took your time to bow at everyone! Are you ok? And where did you learn those spells? When? How? Was it Grendel? You have to teach me!”

“Yes, yes, relax, I’ll teach you. Now, look,” he takes her chin and turns her attention back to the circle where Grendel is walking up to his dragon and enjoys his butterbeer. Hermione worries too much, he was an Auror for sixty years and an unspeakable for over a decade, Merlin. He can take on a dragon while sleeping at this stage.

Bagman starts commenting but Harry tunes it off, the man’s voice is irritating.

Gellert’s dragon is a Common Welsh Green. A smaller and calmer breed of dragon, also a real one unlike the Swedish who is a wyvern, this one has four legs and a set of wings, it’s coloured a muddy green and has dangerous saw-like fangs.

To the surprise of everyone, Gellert only walks openly to the dragon and stares at it. The dragon, surprising everyone again, cocks its head and looks at Gellert attentively as he moves slowly but with certainty. This must be the famous ability that he used many times before, even getting a Chupacabra’s loyalty that was supposed to watch over him, and all while the Macusa had him under custody and he was shackled and unable to speak. He should ask him what the secret is, it looks interesting.

Gellert walks up to the dragon, who moves a little to the side when he crouches to grab the golden egg, all the time keeping eye contact and moving slowly. Then, he walks away, but never breaks eye contact.

The shocked crowd look enraptured as Gellert walks to the exit and also bows at them, gaining an overwhelming ovation.

A few minutes later, he’s also sitting with their group, butterbeer at hand. He takes a sip, followed by a deep breath and sighs, “Ah, that was fun.” He shares a smirk with Harry while Hermione makes thousands of questions.

“That looked intense,” Harry says, nodding. They looked as the handlers take the dragon away and bring the next one. “Is it natural or something you can teach?”

“Both,” Gellert smirks.

“Oh my god! Grendel, you must teach me before you leave. I don’t think I’ll ever face a dragon like you did, but sounds like a fantastic ability to have…” Hermione says excited and gets up only to seat besides the ex-Dark Lord, causing Harry to snicker behind his hand.

“Wow, I feel so loved…” George pouts and Hermione sticks her tongue out at him and they laugh.

The third champion is Fleur, with the Chinese Firebolt as the dragon keeping her egg. Making honour to its name, this dragon is one of the more dangerous as their fire burns hotter and reach longer distances. Also, has a leonine head that makes them look even more fearsome, along with their reddish scales that look as if they’ve been coated in blood and are too wyverns.

Fleur’s tactic is to put the dragon to sleep. She’s surprisingly strong as it usually takes a group of up to a dozen of dragon tamers to accomplish such feat, but she does it by dancing and flaring a weird aura and not the common veela aura either.

“Ooh that’s interesting. I’ve never seen that before, veela are so secretive more often than not…” Gellert says as he looks enraptured.

In the end, the dragon falls asleep around her eggs, Fleur has it hard to get to the egg but she succeeds, looking disgruntled at the end as she leaves. But, while the dragon sleeps, its snorts and sends a firebolt in the veela’s direction. Fortunately, she throws herself to the side with a cute squeak and sits there on her but for a moment, stunned, until the handler by the door calls for her attention and she finally walks away.

“That was scary!” Hermione sighed and clutched her chest.

“She’s cute,” George exclaims with a soft laugh.

The Chinese Firebolt is taken away and the last dragon is put in the middle of the stage.

The Hungarian Horntail is, by far, the scariest out of all of the dragons brought for the tournament. Big and dangerous spikes adorn the tip of its tail and head, it has midnight-black scales, onyx eyes and is one of the more vicious breeds. Up to this day, he’s surprised with himself for out flying this dragon once before.

Suddenly, George clutches his hand painfully hard. They observed in solemn silence as Fred walked into the enclosure and Harry has to admit to himself, he’s also worried for his friend.

Harry recognises as Fred cast a spell to hide his scent and then nothing. A black and thick mist covered the entire enclosure after Fred threw something in the middle of it, Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. He really wants to know _how_ they got it as they don’t have their shop yet and is hardly something easy to come by as it has to be specially imported.

Some minutes later they’re able to breathe easily — Harry rubs his painful hand, auch George! — as Fred walks to the exit clutching his golden egg. They jump and cheer, the first task is over!

* * *

After the first task, Harry and Fred returned to the common room to the ovation of their housemates, ready to throw a wild party for the rest of the night.

Also, Ron tried to apologize for his attitude, only to go ignored by Harry, and stomped away furiously.

The task finished and everyone was happy, Harry had time to take care of some problems now. Unlike the first time around, where Harry had to try and control his temper because he was really annoyed about the badges that supported Cedric and insulted him, he didn’t have to worry about them now. There was no way that Draco would do anything to support a Gryffindor! Not that Harry would have cared, he has an old mind and more patience for stupid teenagers now.

What he worries about though, is the state of his godfather. Sirius and him sent letters to each other and the man showed a lot of support that Harry hadn't noticed before. What bothered him was that Sirius decided to ‘move nearby’, to be close if Harry needed him for anything, which is very much useless, considering Harry’s actual proficiency in defending himself. Firstly, he doesn’t need help as he can manage just fine by himself, secondly, Sirius is putting himself under a lot of danger for Harry’s sake and that upsets Harry to no end.

So, of course, Harry does something about it.

Early the following morning, and with Harry’s decidedly non-changeable participation in the tournament, he sneaks out of Hogwarts and apparates to Gringotts while disguised. Magic recognized him as an adult since he arrived back in the past, but now thanks to the Triwizard so does the Ministry of magic, so Harry can obtain the pertaining paperwork. Id’s and free use of magic are formalized after a short visit to the goblins, who are happy to help finalize sorting his new status as a recognized adult since this will mean he gets to manage the Potter vaults and produce an income. He walks out of the bank with his updated certifications and a wand free of the charm used to register any under-age magic being cast.

Potter manor is already set up as he and Gellert have been living in the manor a while ago, so he travels back to Hogwarts and sends a letter to Sirius with a portkey to his house. Hopefully, the man will recognize that it is safer for him to be there and not fight Harry.

And maybe this way, Dumbledore will be unable to manipulate his godfather to be a recluse of his own childhood home, that he wholeheartedly hates.

Focusing on more pleasant things, Harry laughed after noticing a big Canary-Neville as he arrived at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. Grendel and Luna where there too, having a deeply disturbing conversation in French about some grotesque creature that only Luna could ever come up with.

A couple of days later Sirius replied to his letter with lots of questions that Harry was more than pleased to answer. He wrote about visiting Gringotts since the goblins sent him a letter to renew his id’s since he became an adult under the eyes of the law, buying nice clothes since he learned he doesn’t have to worry about money and could afford a new wardrobe, getting his sight fixed in secret but keeping the glasses for appearance's sake, learning lots of useful things from his friends ‘Grendel’ and Fred, as they were training together for the following steps of the tournament after they discovered what the clue was about, and many other things. It was nice talking with his godfather so freely, he really missed having someone he could consider family; the twins are good friends, but not in the same level as they were in his previous life as they don’t know each other so good yet.

November came and went without much notice, except for Hermione’s continued insistence on her SPEW club that no one cared about — she will certainly beat Harry into a pulp if she learned he’s employing not only Dobby, but Winky too, along with the other elves at Potter manor.

When December arrived, McGonagall announced the yule ball and the need to find a partner, earning the squeals of many girls.

Harry remembers feeling despair at the thought of asking a _girl_ to accompany him to the ball the first time, also thinking that facing the Hungarian Horntail would be preferable. He was such a wuss then, it almost makes him laugh at his own silly fears. This time around it’ll be different.

###### 1994, December 24 – Hogwarts – Yule Ball

The night of the ball arrives and Harry smiles at himself in the mirror. He’s wearing a robe that looks a little different than the one he used the previous time as it has golden details, his hair is styled for once as he used sleekeazy’s ointment, and his features look that much more mature as he looks as confident as he feels.

He walks to the entrance of the great hall, where many other students are waiting for their respective partners, and finds ‘Gwen’ there, already waiting for him along with Grendel. Death certainly knows how to dress-up in female form as she looks stunning in a long black dress of three-quarters sleeve, with eye-catching golden embroidery in the form of fireworks, a metallic gold belt that accentuates her small waist, her blond hair held up with little strands falling down framing her face, smoky eyes and golden lips. She looks nice and is certainly noticed as many males in the room eye her form with more than curiosity.

“Hello, Gwen,” Harry greets Death, taking her hand for a kiss. “You look gorgeous.”

Death giggles. G _iggles_ in that female form. It’s so weird! “Hello, Harry!”

People passing by stop and stare at Death, many with slacked jaws and earning the wrath of their partners.

“I don’t think some people expected you to have such a beautiful companion tonight, as is my sister, Harry,” Grendel comments with glee, staring down at some people looking from the doors of the great hall in envy.

Death scoffs and Harry snorts dismissively. “Where is your date, anyway?” He asks at the blond ignoring the peanut gallery and turning his back to them.

“She should be here anytime now…” Grendel raises his gaze at the stairs behind Harry and Gwen and smiles, “Ah, here she is.”

They turned to find Luna walking closer. She is wearing the most beautiful and non-crazy dress Harry’s ever seen on her, and that’s saying something considering he has over a hundred years more of knowing her beyond this. Her dress is entirely white, indistinguishable from her pale skin, with red blossoms along the bottom, of the same red hue of Grendel’s uniform.

“Hi guys!” Luna chirped with a bright smile, indulging Grendel as he took her hand and put it on the crook of his elbow after kissing her cheek. “I’m so excited about tonight. Daddy said to have lots of fun and take many pictures for the Quibbler!” She said raising a camera.

“I hope you take a good shot of us dancing then,” Harry told her with a smile.

“We can take a picture on the garden later,” Grendel suggested, looking outside. “It will look good with the contrast of your beautiful white dress,” he said charmingly, earning a beaming smile from the young girl.

Silence fell over the previously rambunctious crowd, taking their attention to their surroundings, to catch what was causing it.

“Oh,” Harry exclaimed, surprised since he forgot how pretty Hermione looked in that periwinkle dress.

Krum, again, greeted Hermione after she arrived, and his fans immediately aimed their ire at her with glowering eyes.

“Looking good, Mione!” Harry said, acting normal this time as it wasn’t so shocking, and earning a thankful but shy smile from his friend.

Fred and Angelina arrived then. “Wow,” she exclaimed, “She looks amazing!”

“I can’t believe that’s Hermione,” Fred said too.

“I don’t think our little brother believes it either,” George commented, appearing behind Fred and nodding to the back, where Ron was open-mouthed and frozen in place.

“He may be your brother,” Grendel started, “But he’s been a nightmare lately. He obviously has a crush on her and treats her terribly.”

Fred and George release a synchronized snort and roll their eyes. “He’s stupid,” they say without regret.

McGonagall ushers the rest of the students inside the hall then, shaking her head as Ron walks in by himself. “Come on, no dilly-dallying!” She says snapping her fingers and putting them in line, ready to walk in and dance.

They dance the opening song of the night, eat, talk, and have fun all around.

Not even Ron’s bad mood and glares can spoil the night as Harry fully supports Hermione this time and helps the twins taking away the nuisance before he can say more than two words at his friend and make her angry as it happened in his past.


	7. Damsel in distress?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second task is as disappointing as the first time, although Harry’s not nearly as nervous this time around.  
> Also, he makes preparations for the confrontation with Voldy.

Besides the missing Ron at Harry’s group of friends, things continued as they were supposed to. Rita discovered Hagrid’s half-giant origins and smeared his reputation in the worst way ever, Barty Crouch was still ‘missing’, Hermione and Victor kept seeing each other, and Sirius wrote many letters worried about Harry’s safety.

###### 1995, February 24 – Hogwarts – Second task

When the morning of the second task arrived, Harry wasn’t woken up by Dobby and given last-minute help. Instead, he walked into the great hall for breakfast, sitting side by side with Gred and Grendel and eating calmly.

He planned for the task with many weeks of preparation, being more than ready now for it to start.

When McGonagall approached and informed them of the time to arrive at the stands, the three stood and walked out of the castle together. Neville and some other Gryffindors followed lazily in the distance and Harry noted with curiosity that Luna was missing.

“Where is Luna?” Harry wondered out loud, throwing a quick glance to the side and catching a frown on Grendel’s face.

Fred shrugged, “No idea mate, but I’m sure she’ll appear soon. What I’m more worried about is Forge, he promised to appear early and keep mom’s nerves at bay…”

“Luna, Hermione and George are missing at the last possible minute then,” Harry commented, making it pass as a curious fact and humming, but the other two looked at him sharply after a few seconds, gasping loudly.

“They do anything to that sweet little girl…” Grendel mumbled with tightly closed fist.

Bagman and Percy turned to them as the group arrived, ready to say something, but Grendel sudden flare of angry magic made them flinch and hide away. Fred didn’t seem to mind as he looked just a righteously furious as the other boy.

“Anything happens to George during this stupid tournament,” Fred growled with his eyes full of fury, “And mum won’t be the only one tearing the Ministry down in a rage.”

Harry smirked deviously as he saw Bagman swallow nervously. “Don’t worry mate,” he said patting Gred on the back, “I’ll be waiting on top if you need a hand.”

Fred surprised Harry with a tight one-armed hug, “I knew I can always count on you Harrykins.”

In the following minutes, the stands around the lake became full of people. Fleur arrived, and like usual these days, threw the three of them an assessing once over.

Grendel, always a sucker for attention from pretty ladies, step closer to the half-veela and smiled handsomely. _“Are you ready for today, my fair lady?”_ He asked her in fluent French, earning a surprised and pleased smile from the Beauxbatons champion.

“I have to admit, I’m not looking forward to the cold water,” said Fleur with a slight shiver.

_“If you let me, I can warm you up once we are done here,”_ Grendel purred, shaking his eyebrows with implied devious hidden meaning.

Fleur giggled and shoved him softly. The Ministry stood then, calling for everyone’s attention and announcing the beginning of the task. The four champions made a line on the border of the platform and waited while Bagman announced the countdown. Fleur sported the flimsy blue swimsuit once more, and Harry took a nice appreciative look of the young woman this time as he wasn’t overflowing with worry and dreading swimming (for the first time) on the half-frozen lake.

**_START!_** Was announced loudly by Bagman. Fleur and Grendel (also wearing just a short and earning many catcalls) shot to the water and dived downwards. Fred, on the other hand, started casting spell after spell over himself and stopped shivering after a moment, also diving on the cold water.

Harry was the last one, he was waiting with his arm raised high until the object he summoned arrived from his dorm. Bagman next to him gasped when he extended the rolled flying carpet. Much to the shock of the audience, he rode on the carpet and soared above the lake in complete calm.

From time to time he casted point-me with his wand, until he was standing just above the zone of the lake where his ‘most important’ whatever was being held. Activating a second array on the carpet, an aspect of the flying contraption that not many are able to afford, Harry commanded the carpet to go lower and the water broke in a circle around him.

He keeps going down until he arrives were the four captives are being guarded by merpeople. They are set on a row and the first to the left is Luna, then Hermione, George and finally Fleur’s little sister.

This time around he doesn’t wait, knowing how capable Grendel and Fred are, and cuts Hermione’s binding ropes with a simple diffindo, getting her out of the cold water and casting spells instantly as she started to shiver the second she woke up.

Dry and warmer, she was able to speak as her teeth stopped chattering. “Harry!” She shrieked, hugging him tightly. “You did it, Harry!” She smiled, and they laughed as the carpet ascended over the lake once more. “A flying carpet!” Hermione squealed with emotion when she noticed them moving out of the dark water, “They are really expensive Harry! How did you get one?”

“It wasn’t that expensive,” Harry shrugged. He is such a filthy liar...

“You bought it?” Hermione asked in shock.

She didn’t get an answer as Madam Pomfrey took her away with, put a blanket over her body, and started casting many charms to make sure the girl was fine.

With a smile and a wave, Harry returned to the middle of the lake, ignoring the scores given by the judges. Fred and George emerged next, earning the second place in the competence, and Harry helped by giving them a ride to the platform.

The twins got down, and Harry was about to return to the middle of the lake, but Fleur appeared and started panicking.

“My sister!” Fleur shouted while Madam Maxime tried to calm her down. “They put my little sister there!” Fleur screamed and the water on her body started to evaporate suddenly, but with so many wounds oozing blood and as tired as she was, not even her veela blood helped her and she fainted.

Harry returned to the lake, and quickly as to avoid the merpeople, he took the young girl away. Grendel and Luna where too far off actually, and as Harry landed on the platform, a swarm of creatures deposited a giggling Luna next to him, with Grendel giving his thanks to the creatures before sending them away.

“That was so much fun,” Luna chirped over the roar of the crowd.

Soon after the points where awarded and everyone retired to their respective sectors of the castle. In Gryffindor tower, of course, another party spawned since Harry ended first and had the best points of the four champions.

* * *

It was some time later, as Harry sat with Hermione for the last class of the day, Potions, when it happened again. Although Skeeter isn’t as horrid as previously expected, the rumours and nasty commentary from her publications were just the same. Hermione closed the magazine on her lap with angry tears making an apparition, while her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. How did he forget about the article?

“Hey!” Harry whispered, looking at her from the corner of his eyes. “Whatever it is she wrote now, it isn’t true, Hermione.”

The girl shook her head, and both of them glared when Pansy Parkinson giggled some more from the row of tables at their right.

“Put that away, Snape’s coming!” He warned, and Hermione hid the thing in her bag.

They wrote down the instructions for the potion, Snape glaring at everyone and breathing down their necks as usual, and when they finally left; instead of walking back to the great hall, Harry took her elbow and led them to the RoR.

With the entirety of the library at their disposal, with no wards protecting books from the restricted section, Hermione soon forgot all about Rita Skeeter and the horrible article the woman wrote about her. They finished some homework there, eating some finger food Dobby left for them, and relaxed in the silence and good company.

She was happy by the time they returned to the common room before curfew, but all of Harry’s work was unmade when Ron, with his misplaced jealousy as usual, called Hermione a slut.

He swears, she never looked scarier than in that moment when she hexed Ron with a pig’s nose, after she gave him a good shake up with insults he’s sure Ron didn’t understand half of. And beyond that, the entirety of the house laughed at the ginger afterwards, chasing him away.

“You know what I don’t understand?” Hermione sighed, sitting in front of him on the small table in a corner close to the window, “How did Skeeter know that Victor asked to visit during the summer?”

Harry shrugged, fixing his attention in something different, “Victor asked you to visit him?”

Hermione flushed, lowering her face with a silly smile, “Yes...” she whispered.

“And?” Harry asked in interest, “Will you?”

“I-I’m not sure,” Hermione giggled, immediately after covering her mouth. “What do you think Harry? Should I...?”

Harry laughed at his friend’s attitude. It is odd to see Hermione acting this flustered. She’s generally so serious and sure of herself... but then again, he sometimes forgets this is a younger version of her that he isn’t used to seeing anymore.

“I don’t know?” Harry shrugged. “How do you feel about him?”

Hermione sighed, pulling a wayward strand of hair behind her ear and looking out of the window, “I really, really like him.”

Harry hummed, getting a mischievous smile suddenly, “Is he that good at kissing?”

“Harry!” She exclaimed, hitting him with her scarf on the shoulder.

“What? Is a valid question!” He laughed.

Hermione laughed along for a moment, the blush disappearing after a while. “He’s actually quite good,” she stammered.

“Oh,” Harry exclaimed with a playful tone, wiggling his eyebrows at her and making her laugh some more, “Then you probably should visit... but-” Hermione huffed, rolled her eyes, but paid attention when he grew serious, “Think that if you do that, you’ll most probably meet his parents, and that means something else entirely, Mione.”

Hermione sat back, nodding, “Yes, that crossed my mind too.”

“What do you actually know about Krum?” Harry asked then.

Hermione spoke for a long while after, and together, they analysed the two’s interactions, trying to understand what Victor may have in mind doing something so seemingly reckless when they knew each other for just a couple of months.

* * *

That night, Harry went to sleep late, waking up with just the time to make himself a bacon and egg sandwich before the food disappeared at breakfast and everyone left the castle. Then, as it was a Hogsmeade day, he left with some friends and scurried away when the opportunity presented. He had things to take care of before the third task arrived.

First, he visited Gringotts, to go down to his vaults and search what was available for his protection there. He thought he remembered some armour, but when he found the stash, there wasn’t anything available of his size. Annoyed, he shadowed into Bellatrix’s vault very quickly before leaving the bank and ended up in Knockturn alley instead, since the best tailor for armour is there, and ordered some simple black dragonhide protection to use during the third task. Hagrid’s Blast-Ended Skrewts are a frigging menace, they are. Besides, he doesn’t want to try his luck by facing Voldemort with only his Quidditch gear, that’s just asking for trouble.

Next, he visited Grimmauld Place, getting Slytherin’s locket from Kreacher with a promise to destroy it. Then, he apparated in Little Hangleton, avoiding Riddle Manor and Voldemort of course, to walk around the property until he found the shack the Gaunts used to live in and grabbed the Peverell ring, destroying the withering curse with just a touch of Death’s power.

**_≻Why aren’t you sending that broken thing away to me?≺_** Death asked, as he made a sudden appearance.

Harry sighed, rolling his eyes and ignoring the entity’s presence as he walked out of the dilapidated house.

“If I do that, I won’t be able to put him together and play around with his fear of you,” Harry explained and apparated away.

Back in Hogsmeade, Harry walked out of a deserted alley and made his way to the Hogshead, where Grendel and Hermione waited. As Death followed, he adopted Gwen’s appearance and followed along.

“Look who I found,” Harry exclaimed with zest as he arrived next to Grendel and sat.

“Hi Gwen!” Hermione said with a surprised smile. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to visit my brother during the weekend,” Death said, giving her ‘sibling’ a smile.

Gellert shivered slightly next to Harry, but still nodded at her.

“Are you sure we should be here?” Grendel said instead to Harry, and turned to look in the direction of the owner who was glaring at him since he and Hermione arrived.

Harry turned his head in Abeforth’s direction and smiled mischievously, “Sure!” He said with confidence and raised a hand, earning a scowl from the pub’s owner. “Can we have four butterbeer, please?”

Abeforth put the rag down with an angry growl, but delivered the order without much more trouble anyway.

“Why is he like that?” Hermione asked, looking at Abe warily.

“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you,” Gwen said, hiding a soft laugh behind her hand while Grendel turned his head away and pursed his lips.

Right then Victor and Luna arrived, packed with big bags of sweets each and sat with them at the table.

“Hermione, look at these chocolates!” Victor said with a heavy accent and completely butchering her name.

Harry smiled at hearing him as he almost forgot how funny it was to listen Krum and his friend talking, with her correcting his pronunciation all the time, and Krum trying to fix it with all the patience in the world. They were really cute together and Harry hoped that maybe this time Hermione will choose Victor instead of Ron the prat.

“Grendel, do you want some frogs?” Luna offered from her own stash of sweets.

The ex-Dark Lord for his part grimaced at the squirming frog-shaped confectionary, “Luna, love, please put it away. I always found those disturbing. I can’t even look at them without feeling sick.”

“Oh, sorry,” Luna said and quickly put the thing in her mouth.

Grendel gagged at the sight, making everyone at the table laugh at his oddly dislike of chocolate frogs.

###### 1995, June 24 – Hogwarts – Third Task

Without the gossiping about Karkaroff, the Dark Mark, and Death Eaters, the months passed quickly and their attention was put into other things instead. Like Hermione’s possible visit to Victor’s house and training with the twins.

Harry enjoyed making Victor squirm as he played the roll of Hermione’s overprotective friend/brother, causing the guy blush in more than one occasion, or even make him lost it with stories of the horrible mail she was getting in response of Skeeter’s badmouthing in Witch Weekly.

Also, Harry enjoyed intimidating the Slytherin gang. Parkinson was terrible to Hermione in his first going through life, so he didn’t spare her any sympathy while dealing with that group. Malfoy woke one day to a sudden and terrible case of pimples, Parkinson found out many things about her running around the rumour mill of Hogwarts that were hard to stop, Zabini went from a womanizer to a pariah in the circle of females, and finally, Greengrass had difficulty sleeping with all the nightmares plaguing her which caused her appearance to deteriorate the longer they lasted. Nott, Goyle and Crabbe saved themselves by never saying much, but they too got a few scares here and there the few times they did.

This time, Harry was taking the gloves off with anyone who messed around him and his; he wasn’t about to play the doormat like the first time around. Not for Dumbledore, or anyone else.

Thankfully, after the first time, Hermione listened and didn’t open unknown mail without checking it first, avoiding many accidents with hexed or otherwise tainted hate-mail.

While all that drama was taking place, Gellert and Harry also made time to mess around with Dumbledore, making sure to cross paths with the man every time he decided to take a stroll around the castle. The Marauder’s Map was really useful for that task.

Gellert used his insight on their past to make sure he and Harry were found talking about things that would make Dumbledore reminisce on the time he spent with Geller when they were younger. Or they’d decide to simply cross paths with the Headmaster and enjoy the man losing his mirth at a single glance. It was lots of fun.

More so when they doctored Albus’ sweets with a truth draught, leaving a listening charm in a trinket on his desk to listen when he talked with anyone, losing it when Albus told McGonagall about thinking of buying her some catnip, told a few Board members what he really thought of their ideas for the school, and even insulted the Minister a few times before the man got enough of it.

Of course, between al the fun, they also studied and prepared for the last task... of Fred did anyway. Mostly, Harry and Gellert threw around ideas of the kind of creatures or spells that could be used for the big maze that’s been growing in the Quidditch pitch, and discussed the ways in which they’d take care of them.

For Hermione, who usually tried to use the time at the RoR to finish homework, it was very frustrating while at the same time she greatly enjoyed herself. The discussions Grendel and Harry had always ended up redirection all of her attention, much to their amusement, when she realized she didn’t finish her essays.

By the time the third task was bound to start, Fred was as ready as they could make him, while the older duo relaxed and waited for the beginning. Harry though, was still a bit miffed that Molly didn’t just visited and acted cold with Hermione, but she also was all warm and happy when she talked with him. Every time he saw the woman, he had to fight the urge to curse the witch for the amortentia incident with Ginny. Thankfully, he didn’t get to spent too much time with the gold digger bitch.

Finally, Bagman started to announce the start of the task, and Harry was the first to run into the maze as he had the most points.

The edges were as tall and dreary as Harry remembered, but with the help of his advanced knowledge of magic it almost felt like cheating participating in a competition against Fleur and Fred. Grendel didn’t care to put effort in it, even though he could be of actual competition for Harry. It just didn’t seem worth the effort for the ex-Dark Lord.

But he was excited about the confrontation with Voldemort.

Harry strutted along the long dark halls with confidence and patience. Taking a turn to the right when the edges divided, a whistle blew, the sound ringing in the air, and the sky darkened a bit more. The silence and the never-ending corridors were nerve-wracking for him the first time, but as the second whistle went off, he merely filched slightly.

Another division and Harry turned left, finding a creature for the first time; a dementor shaped boggart. Amoral as a boggart may be, but not even he’d be safe from the Master of Death’s abilities; the creature merely observed him, edging away the closer Harry walked to it, and almost blending on the edges behind it when Harry was right next to it. With a snort, Harry continued walking, shaking his head in amusement and patting Lethi that hung from his back, hissing imprecations to the creature they just passed by.

Another whistle sounded.

Harry cast a spell over his eyes to be able to see in the darkness and continue. The sky was completely dark now.

A blast-ended screwt crossed his path a minute or so later and Harry ended it with a disgusted sneer in its direction. The final whistle went off and he kept walking past the mess the screwt made when it exploded.

“Hey,” Grendel said, announcing his presence a moment later.

Harry smirked, “Good so far?”

“Yes,” Gellert snorted, “You weren’t joking about your friend’s creature. A blast-ended what?”

“Blast-Ended Screwt.”

“Right,” he shocked with a soft laugh, “Hideous little pest.”

The continue walking together in silence, attentive to any danger ahead. When they came up to the golden mist that terrified Harry the first time, Grendel dispelled it with a simple twist of his wrist, neither of them pausing.

Fleur’s scream a moment later called for their attention for a second; they kept going.

Left lead to a dead-end, so right was next. Then, right was the dead end, so they took left. Far ahead the edge divided right, left, and middle. A quick point-me lead the left, midway along the edge Fred appeared from a corridor and had a blank stare. Imperiused.

Harry sighed, hating that his friend suffered Krum’s fate in this life, and stunned the ginger.

“How was that supposed to help?” Gellert wondered out loud, looking at the fallen Weasley when they walked pass by, and igniting the red sparks for the boy’s safety.

“In my previous life, Krum took down Fleur with a cruciatus curse, and tried to do the same with Cedric until I interrupted and stunned the guy.”

Gellert snorted, “Crazy Death Eaters.”

“Tell me about it,” Harry agreed.

Silently, they arrived at the sphinx not long after. Between both of them the riddle was easily answered, and then, there was the cup.

The portkey.

Harry looked down at his arm and rubbed his forearm. Not this time, Pettigrew, he though as a devious smirk plastered on his face. To his right, Geller got rid of two big acromantulas that fell to the floor with a dull thud.

“You ready?” He asked looking back at Gellert.

The man raised an eyebrow cockily, “I was born ready,” he said and walked up next to him, in front of the goblet.

“Let’s go join the party then,” Harry smirked.

They took the portkey together and were whisked away from Hogwarts’ grounds entirely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For you CherriixBerrii. I don't have the next chapter ready, but a little incentive of what is to come. 😉
> 
> _Another minute and the magic started to settle, the body lowered to the floor, and Geller hurried to help Harry remain on his feet for a little longer.  
>  Death took a look at the newly mortal Tom Riddle and cackled, disappearing back to his realm but still amused at the fate of the scared mortal as his Master will take care of things now.  
> “That was fucking exhausting,” Harry complained and rubbed his face with his free hand, while the other grabbed Gellert’s forearm to keep himself upright.  
> A thud distracted them suddenly, and when they turned to look, Riddle was face-planting on the floor, unconscious.  
> Gellert and Harry snorted._
> 
> Thanks for your support!


End file.
